In Taiwan, the clan associations have some leverage over local affairs, including elections of legislator, county mayor, county congressman, township heads, town heads and town councilman, and so on. Some critics observe that the clan associations have far more significant influence than political party in some counties such as Tao-yuan, Hsin-chu, etc. This thesis aims to explore the interaction between local faction and clan association in Taiwan through analysis on several cases about Tao-yuan county. The author will focus on the social network and bring forward the following assumptions: (1) politicians influence the result of an election by involving themselves in local faction; (2) politicians influence the result of an election by involving themselves in clan association; (3) local faction forms an alliance with clan association to influence the result of an election. In sum, the interactive patterns between local faction and clan association can be divided into four categories: (1) clan faction, i.e. local faction comprised primarily of members of clan association; (2) clan faction with some other clan ; (3) non-clan faction, i.e. local faction comprised primarily not of members of clan association; (4) local faction unrelated to any clan association. The author attempts to explain the following aspects: first of all, how local faction develops cooperation relationship with clan association in various elections in Tao-yuan county; secondly, the alliance between local faction and clan association will be a short-term or long-term relationship; furthermore, if clan association will be in the cooperative process dwindled into factious clubs. Finally, what kind of interest exchanges will exist between local faction and clan association? The major findings of this study were as the following: (1) local faction develops a long-term cooperation relationship with clan association in various elections in order to win; (2) local factions win over clan associations by providing service and fellowship; (3) clan association has tendency to dwindle into factious clubs.

<p>Metabolic syndrome is taking epidemic proportions, especially in developed countries. Each risk factor component of the syndrome independently increases the risk of developing coronary artery disease. The risk factors are obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes type 2, insulin resistance, and microalbuminuria. Nuclear receptors is a family of receptors that has recently received a lot of attention due to their possible involvement in metabolic syndrome. Putting the receptors into context with their co-factors and ligands may reveal therapeutic targets not found by studying the receptors alone. Therefore, in this thesis, interactions between genes in nuclear receptor pathways were analysed with the goal of investigating if these interactions can supply leads to biomarkers for metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome donor gene expression data from the BioExpressä, database was analysed with the APRIORI algorithm (Agrawal et al. 1993) for generating and mining association rules. No association rules were found to function as biomarkers for metabolic syndrome, but the resulting rules show that the data mining technique successfully found associations between genes in signaling pathways.</p>

Thesis (D.Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2006. / Includes abstract and prospectus. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-162).

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--Sociol.--Lyon 2, 1988. / Bibliogr. p. 313-333. Index.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed January 26, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Cerry M. Klein. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1936. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 381-383) and index.

Issued also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Bibliography: p. 66-67.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (D. Ed. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-122).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Christine L. Duvauchelle. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.