This Thesis will begin by highlighting the significance of social media networks and e-Commerce in today’s business environment. The purpose of this paper is to develop an external marketing strategy that can be employed by start-up firms operating in the e-Commerce of reverse auction sites.   The paper will particularly focus on the company EarnBidWin.com and the marketing strategy will be based on the Service Perspective. EarnBidWin.com is an online reverse auction site that is new and unique compared to other existing models of reverse auction. EarnBidWin.com is a web-based advertising and networking platform that features e-Campaigns (performance-based advertising) and reverse auctions. EarnBidWin.com’s unique business model within a social-business network offers a win-win situation for all parties concerned.   A qualitative research method is conducted by using a case study. The data is gathered through the primary source of interviews with the CEO of the company, along with the secondary source of extensive academic literature. Finally, the results are presented in a discussion of a proposed marketing strategy based on the combination of the Service Perspective and the Critical Success Factors of high growth start-up firms in the e-Commerce arena.

Mono-dispersed supported Ni catalysts were synthesized using the water-CTAB-hexanol reverse micellar system. The core of the reverse micelles contained an aqueous solution of NiCl2. Dynamic light scattering measurements showed that microemulsions having a water-to-surfactant molar ratio, Wo, of 10 lead to reverse micelles with lowest polydispersity, longest stability, and size range of interest. At an oil-to-aqueous phase ratio of 2, the diameter of the reverse micelles was found to increase with Wo in a linear fashion. At higher values of Wo (i.e. 25-30), the polydispersity was found to increase when lowering the amount of surfactant in the system. Ultimately, O/A = 2 and Wo = 10 were chosen as optimal conditions for microemulsion preparation. The aqueous NiCl2 concentration within the micelles was varied between 0.1 and 0.001 M. DLS results showed that although the average micelle diameter was between 70-83 nm throughout the range of metal salt concentrations, the crystallite size estimate based upon the reported micelle diameter and known aqueous NiCl2 concentration ranged between 2 to 7 nm. Therefore, the Ni crystallite size was varied by changing the aqueous NiCl2 concentration due to instability issues arising when changing the value of Wo. After deposition onto an alumina mesh support, the particles were dried, calcined, and reduced to produce Ni clusters. SEM and EDS analysis was used to confirm the presence of Ni compounds after the calcination stage. By the varying the aqueous NiCl2 concentration within the micelles, .0039, .0013, and .00039 wt. % Ni catalysts were produced and characterized using SEM. Particles in the size range of 10-14 nm were noticed for the .0039 wt. % Ni catalysts after reduction, 7-11 nm for .0013 wt. % Ni, and 5-9 nm for .00039 wt. % Ni. The lower-end of these particle size ranges was comparable to the crystallite size estimates. Ethane hydrogenolysis and ethylene hydrogenation reactions were conducted over the emulsion-prepared catalysts in order to determine particle size effects on catalytic activity. Results showed that the catalytic activity, defined in terms of per unit metal surface atom (or TON, turnover number), decreases with increasing particle size for the hydrogenolysis reaction. This trend may be due to an intrinsic size effect in which smaller particles exhibit the chemical or structural properties necessary for achieving a higher reaction rate. The results for ethylene hydrogenation showed that the reaction rate did not significantly change with crystallite size, confirming that the reaction is facile or structure-insensitive.

The rotary lip seal is the most widely used dynamic seal. It is used extensively in the automotive and appliance industries. Experimentally, it is well known that the microasperities on the shaft surface can significantly affect the performance of a lip seal, even though the shaft roughness, after run-in, is much smaller than the lip roughness. In the present study, several deterministic numerical models are developed to investigate the effect of shaft surface finish on rotary lip seal behavior, through an understanding of the basic physics of lip seal operation. This project is performed in a step by step manner with gradually increasing complexity. Four models are included in this study: hydrodynamic analysis, elastohydrodynamic analysis for full film lubrication, mixed-EHL model for mixed lubrication with asperity contact, and transient dynamic mixed-EHL model for startup and shutdown processes. Those analyses allow the examination of some important seal characteristics, such as the load support sharing between hydrodynamic and contact pressure, contact and cavitation area ratio, reverse pumping rate, liftoff speed for tracing the liftoff process and average film thickness. The development of fluid, contact and cavitation areas as a result of the changing operation condition is also examined. The results of the present deterministic modeling indicate that shaft surface roughness can produce significant desirable effects on lip seal behavior. An appropriate shaft surface profile could improve the sealing ability and prevent seal failure.

Debugging in the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) environment is a challenge since it was hard to observe their signals on a chip. How to obtain the chip internal signals to help chip designers effective to verify and debug has become an important issue.It is impractical to observe their signals on output pins due to pin number limitation. The conventional solution is to embed a monitor within the hardware for capturing the signals in real time and storing them in a on-chip trace memory. This thesis shows how the embedded multi-resolution AXI Bus Tracer can enable users to achieve the SoC debugging and performance evaluation efficiently, and it can trace the AXI Signals on the AMBA 3.0 AXI environment. Users can dynamically adjust the tracking resolution during the program execution, and we also provide an effective encoding algorithm for compressing the trace data. With our trace analysis software, we provide the detail information ranging from detail signal waveforms to transaction level waveforms, and transfer the trace signals into Value Change Dump (VCD) file. We also show several pie charts to analyze the portion of transfer types. In our work, we provide a synthesizable hardware to embed SOC for capturing signals. Then traced information through decompress and analysis can make users analyze system debugging and performance evaluation.

Reverse auction bidding is an online auction system. A purchaser's primary objective in using a reverse auction is to obtain the lowest possible bid for goods and services on a construction project. With this type of bidding, it is normal that the purchaser will only consider price, instead of a bidders' work history and experience. As a reverse auction is an online service, the common misperception is that a purchaser can reach a broader market to obtain the lowest possible price. It is a controversial bidding system. No previous research has been undertaken by the Texas A&M University Reverse Auction Bidding study group into potential owner interference with the bidding system for a reverse auction. Six bidders were asked to participate in the Reverse Auction Bidding process for a series of construction projects in Houston. Each participant was also asked to complete a Keirsey Temperament Sorter Test type I and II to determine each participant's personality. After the tests, the six participants competed in an online reverse auction bidding game. The primary objective of this research is to analyze the impact of an owner's interference in a reverse auction bidding scenario. In this test, one of the six bidders acted as the owner's surrogate to interfere with an ethical process and reduce the owner's costs. The other five bidders were unaware of the surrogate's role in the bidding. The primary directive given to the surrogate bidder was to drive down the cost of the projects. The results for the research study show that the owner's surrogate can affect the bidding process. Interference results in reduced returns for the bidders when compared to an uncompromised bidding scenario. It is clear that the method used is unethical.

Participating in an auction and winning items by placing bids has been in practice since at least 500 B.C. Auctions have evolved since then and anyone can now participate in one online and buy items ranging from clothes, electronics, automobiles and homes using online auction websites, such as eBay. A Reverse Auction varies from the traditional style of Auction where items or services are won by placing successive higher bids until the auction ends. The study of Reverse Auction was first introduced to Texas A & M University in 2004 and continues today, using a SQL based web system. This current research provides a detailed statistical analysis of the fourth case study in this long running work. This fourth case study involved the participation of five bidders who had no prior experience in Reverse Auctions. A Microsoft Access database system and ASP web based user interface was developed and used to conduct these initial studies. However, due to the limited capability of the Access system to handle more than a limited number of connections or bidders, a Microsoft SQL database and web system was developed in 2006 and has been used in all subsequent studies. Case studies have involved up to ten participants. The results from the fourth case study show that a Reverse Auction can result in an increase in the average cost of the job to the owner. Also, there is evidence of game play amongst the bidders and against the purchaser that causes their profits to rise as they gain proficiency in the game. This behavior has been termed as 'tacit collision', but it is considered a byproduct of the system and not illegal behavior. This study analyzes the fourth study data to investigate if the behavior termed "tacit collusion" is evident in the bidding data. This analysis is completed by performing a detailed statistical analysis of the bidding data. Analysis of the profit percentages illustrates the different stages of the game play amongst the bidders. This game play behavior is illustrated by plotting average number of bids to the profit made by each bidder. The data clearly suggests that the players became efficient in their bidding strategy, although some bidders are more efficient than others. This observation negates the common conception that Reverse Auctions will result in lowering average costs for the owners. The individual data of bidders for bids and profit reveal why some players were able to obtain higher than average results and why the others were not. This study can be taken further by analyzing the patterns of the successful and unsuccessful players to determine what causes them to gain or lose profits.

Reverse Auction Bidding (RAB) study into the construction industry commenced at Texas AandM (TAMU) University in 2004 from the work of a graduate student who was interested in the reasons for RAB being considered unethical by some. This thesis is the eleventh study into Reverse Auction Bidding building on the work of the previous researchers. Previous case studies investigated a number of different competitive situations ranging from three to ten players. In the last few studies, the bidding behavior and performance of participants in the RAB process is being observed with respect to their personality. Personality for each player is tested using the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) test. The KTS describes four major personalities and four role variants in each of the personalities, summing up to sixteen role variants. There appears at this stage a strong correlation between personality type and game performance. This study extends the work on the Guardian personality type to investigate the four sub-types of this personality. This study builds on the previous work by analyzing the four different Guardian role variants being Provider, Protector, Inspector and Supervisor. The aim of the research is to investigate whether there is a difference in game returns between the personality type from within this group. The study involves a game scenario involving a facility manager hiring the contractors who submit the lowest bid for the assumed renovation project. The study also gives the contractor a modified KTS questionnaire that can be used by them for hiring an individual for the position of an estimator with a competent personality. The individuals were selected from undergraduate Construction Science students with limited experience. The game lasted for nine rounds, with the statistical results of the bidding and contract data showing patterns similar to the previous studies. The results show us that the individuals with a role variant of Providers provided the highest return in this case study, although a single case study is insufficient to draw formal conclusions on this matter, the result points to future research.

Due to the discrepancy among series-connected cells in a lead-acid battery pack, the restored capacities may not be the same during the charging/discharging processes. Through repeated charging and discharging, one can find that the unbalance of individual series-connected battery cell of lead-acid battery is getting worse, because those cells of poor state of charge may have negative voltage, causing reverse charging from the other cells. This abnormal operation results in not only more energy consumption, but also the acceleration of the battery-cell aging and the remarkable reduction of its lifetime. For the purpose of investigating this problem, the operating characteristics of each cell is under study. The battery cells are purposely charged by different floating voltages and discharged by different cutoff voltages. The investigation results show that the lifecycles of battery cells are affected more significantly by floating charging voltage than by the discharging cutoff voltage. It is also found that a long time reverse charging has a destructive effect on the battery cells.

Cam mechanisms are widely utilized for automatic devices in production lines, and the important influences for accuracy of out motions are the kinematic characteristics of follower motions. In order to realize and analyze the influence of the error in manufacturing processes, this research is going to analyze the planar cam-follower motion curve by using the reverse function in a measuring system. The goal of this research is to improve the measuring accuracy and efficiency in a cam measuring system. Results obtained by applying the developed measuring system also compared to those obtained by using a coordinate measuring machine.

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