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Introduction: A review of the literature shows that standard clinical balance measures do not adequately predict fall risk in community-dwelling older individuals. There is significant evidence demonstrating the interactions of fear, anxiety, and confidence with the control of standing posture. Little is known however about the nature of this relationship under more challenging balance conditions, particularly in the elderly. The primary purpose of this work was to evaluate the relationship between fear of falling, clinical balance measures and fall-risk. Methods: Three studies were conducted evaluating the effects of postural threat (manipulated by support surface elevation) and/or cognitive loading (working memory secondary task) on clinical balance performance and task-specific psychological measures. Predictive and construct validity as well as test-retest reliability was evaluated for measures used to assess fear of falling and related psychological constructs . Results: Postural threat resulted in reduced balance confidence and perceived stability as well as increased state anxiety and fear of falling. These changes were significantly correlated to decrements in performance of clinical balance tasks. Neither standard clinical scales of balance and mobility nor generalized psychological measures, alone or in combination, could predict falls in community-dwelling elderly. However, combined scores on selected challenging clinical balance tasks could significantly predict falls. Furthermore, improved predictive precision resulted from having these tasks performed under combined postural threat and cognitive loading. Finally, the inclusion of task-specific psychological measures resulted in further improvements to predictive precision. Psychological measures demonstrated fair to excellent test-retest reliability in both healthy young and independent-living older individuals. Conclusions: Clinical balance tasks performed under more challenging conditions likely better reflect everyday experiences in which a fall is likely to occur. Incorporating easy-to-administer task-specific psychological evaluations and self-reported health estimates with clinical balance assessments might improve the likelihood of correctly identifying community-dwelling individuals at risk for falls. Improved estimates of fall-risk may lead to a reduction in the number of falls experienced in this population, thereby reducing the significant burden of fall-related hospitalizations, treatments and rehabilitation on the individual, families and health care system.

Soil salinity affects an estimated one billion hectares worldwide. Excess salinity inhibits plant growth, limiting crop production. This is caused by osmotic stress in saline soil, nutrient imbalance and specific ion toxicity. There have been many methods of remediation investigated, including excavation, soil washing and phytoremediation. Phytoremediation involves the growth of plants on impacted soils to degrade or sequester contaminants. The remediation of salts relies on the uptake of ions into plant biomass where the salt is sequestered and the biomass can then be harvested. This method removes the salt from the site and leaves the top soil in place, which aids in revegetation after site remediation is completed. Plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) improves plant growth by lowering the levels of stress ethylene within the plant, thereby increasing the biomass available to sequester ions. The objectives of this research were to investigate the efficiency of phytoremediation of salt impacted soils in field remediation sites. Previously isolated strains of PGPR (UW3, Pseudomonas putida; UW4, Pseudomonas putida; and CMH3, Pseudomonas corrugata) were used in field trials involving the planting of oats (Avena sativa), annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), tall wheatgrass (Agropyron elongatum) and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea C.V. Inferno). The salt tolerance of various switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) cultivars (Cave-In-Rock, Southlow, Forestburg, and common) was compared to tall wheatgrass and Inferno tall fescue to investigate the potential of switchgrass for phytoremediation. Improvement of seed germination under salt stress by H2O2 pre-treatment was investigated both as an individual treatment and in combination with CMH3 treatment. The ion uptake into plant biomass was iii compared to the change in salinity, to determine how much of the decrease in site salinity is accounted for by uptake of salt by plants. H2O2 pretreatment resulted in a 50% increase in root and shoot emergence of tall wheatgrass under 75 mM NaCl stress compared to control treatments, which matched the germination improvement observed with PGPR treatment. The combination of H2O2 and CMH3 showed a similar improvement to root emergence under stress, but had no observable effect on shoot emergence when compared to the no-H2O2-no-PGPR control. Switchgrass cultivars showed a lower germination rate than tall wheatgrass at salt levels from 0 mM to 150 mM NaCl. The measured uptake of Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and Cl- into plant biomass during a phytoremediation field trial was able to account for approximately 70% of the observed change in salinity in 2008. In 2009 the uptake of Na+ and Cl- into Kochia scoparia, a weed species that invaded the field site after a hard frost, was able to account for 36% of the observed change in salinity.

There has been an increased focus on balancing multiple life roles and managing the boundary between work and family. To minimize employees’ work life balance issues, organizations have turned to policies such as flextime, on-site childcare, and other mechanisms to ensure that engaging in one’s family does not interfere with work (Rothbard, 2001). The purpose of this study is to explore employees’ use of tactics to manage their work and life stress; particularly the employees’ use of resources and social support as well as their perceptions of flexibility. Eight employees who work in the not-for-profit sector were interviewed. Narrative inquiry was used and qualitative interviews were conducted. What was found was that employees seek flexibility, support and understanding from their supervisor.

Abstract Balance Score Card (BSC) has been adopted broadly in organization performance evaluation as well as strategy development and evaluation, especially when the business environment is growingly competitive. The effectiveness of BSC has been shown through its practice in many large-size companies by enhancing cross divisional communications. However, for 90% of companies in Taiwan are small and medium sized and these companies contributed over 70% of job opportunities, it is important to investigate whether BSC can provide such effectiveness for these Taiwanese firms. Thus, this research develops a case study of an emerging company. By observing the decision and introduction of BSC to the company, this research has found below conclusions: 1. Small and medium sized firms are simpler, thus easier to focus and result to shorter introduction time of BSC. 2. BSC has provided effective design of indicators to connect strategy and actions and further provide good means for management team to evaluate performance and report to the board. 3. In the development phase of SMEs, the financial phase of BSC reminds the firms to emphasize the growth of revenue. With the help of BSC, management team can balance the focus of customer value, internal process and organizational learning.

Within any manufacturing environment, the selection of the production or assembly machines is part of the day to day responsibilities of management. This is especially true when there are multiple types of machines that can be used to perform each assembly or manufacturing process. As a result, it is critical to find the optimal way to select machines when there are multiple related assembly machines available. The objective of this research is to develop and present a model that can provide guidance to management when making machine selection decisions of parallel, non-identical, related electronics assembly machines. A model driven Decision Support System (DSS) is used to solve the problem with the emphasis in optimizing available resources, minimizing production disruption, thus minimizing cost. The variables that affect electronics product costs are considered in detail. The first part of the Decision Support System was developed using Microsoft Excel as an interactive tool. The second part was developed through mathematical modeling with AMPL9 mathematical programming language and the solver CPLEX90 as the optimization tools. The mathematical model minimizes total cost of all products using a similar logic as the shortest processing time (SPT) scheduling rule. This model balances machine workload up to an allowed imbalance factor. The model also considers the impact on the product cost when expediting production. Different scenarios were studied during the sensitivity analysis, including varying the amount of assembled products, the quantity of machines at each assembly process, the imbalance factor, and the coefficient of variation (CV) of the assembly processes. The results show that the higher the CV, the total cost of all products assembled increased due to the complexity of balancing machine workload for a large number of products. Also, when the number of machines increased, given a constant number of products, the total cost of all products assembled increased because it is more difficult to keep the machines balanced. Similar results were obtained when a tighter imbalance factor was used.

Twenty-four Quarter horse weanlings (120 d +/- 10 d) were blocked by age into 4 groups (n = 6) for a 56 d trial to evaluate the influence of methionine on growth and nitrogen retention. Weanlings were housed by block and individually fed 1 of 4 concentrate diets twice daily at 1.5% BW (as fed). Weanlings were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatments: basal (0.20 MET), basal + 0.03% methionine (0.23 MET), basal + 0.07% methionine (0.27 MET), and basal + 0.11% methionine (0.31 MET). Diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous, isocaloric, and contain equal amounts of LYS and THR. Coastal bermudagrass hay was individually fed at 0.75% BW (as fed). Growth measurements, body weight, rump fat, and plasma were obtained every 7 d. The final 4 days consisted of total collection of urine and feces. Feed, fecal, and urine samples were analyzed for nitrogen content and nitrogen balance was calculated. Urine was analyzed for urea and ammonia concentration. Plasma was analyzed for urea concentration. Grain, hay, and fecal samples were analyzed for nutrient composition. Data were analyzed using the PROC MIX procedure of SAS. Linear, quadratic, and cubic effects were tested in the form of contrasts. There was no influence of treatment on growth measurements, nitrogen balance, or urinary urea or ammonia. Intake of LYS and THR (g/d) did not differ among treatments (P = 0.78 and P = 0.38 respectively). Plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) was influenced by treatment (P = 0.005) exhibiting quadratic (P = 0.04) and cubic (P = 0.002) effects. An unexpected peak in PUN was observed with 0.27 MET. Upon analysis, 0.20 MET contained more lysine than formulated, and 0.27 MET contained the least lysine. Treatments 0.20 MET and 0.31 MET contained more threonine compared to formulations. These differences may explain unexpected values of PUN concentration. Results suggest future studies that more closely isolate methionine as the only dietary variable are necessary to better explain the methionine requirements of weanling horses.

Abstract After the National Health Insurance was implemented ,it provides our citizens not only the basic medical treatment but also reduce the financial burden. However, the financial difficulties is becoming worse for National Health Insurance of Taiwan. In order to reduce the medical expenses. The Health Insurance authorities implemented many different policies.Balance billing was one of these interventions. The purposes of this research included to understand the relationships between the balance billing and the characteristics of physicians and patients .Particularly, this research focused on the perceptions of balance billing form the Physicians and hospitalized patients¡¦points of view. The Andersen¡¦s health behavior model was the conceptual framework for this study. The questionnaire was sent out to 200 doctors and 1000 patients in Kaohsiung , Pingtung regional hospitals ,with 101 (response rate 50.6%) and 638 (63.8%)returned , respectively. The characteristic and the attitude towards balance billing system such as medical quality, medical care and medical expenses from both physicians and patients were collected. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression were used to analyze this study. The Results from physicians survey are summarized as follows: 1.There were no statistical significance between the physicians¡¦ characteristics (such as age, gender, and tenure) and the agreement of balance billing .Ninety-four out of 101 physicians agreed on the new policy. 2.There would be no influence of balance billingon the medical care from the perspective of physicians. 3.Physicians who agreed on the viewpoints of paying extra payments would lead to the better treatment were 12 times more likely to accept the balance billing. 4.There were no difference among medical expenditures, the level of understanding, and the policy of balance billing. The results from inpatient survey are summarized as follows: 1. Inpatients demographic characteristics, (such as education¡Boccupation and disease), were significant related to the agreement of the policy of balance billing system. However, there were no statistical difference in age, gender, language, and private insurance. 2.Most inpatients who agreed on the balance billing policy were 1.8 times more to believe that if they paid out-of-pocket, they would gain more medical attention form physicians. 3.Regarding the quality of care, inpatients whoever agreed upon the policy of balance billing would perceive that they would receive 3 to 3.8 times higher quality of care in medical materials and medicine, respectively. 4.The more the agreement of the balance billing policy, the higher the satisfactory. 5.Inpatients who understood the new policy were more likely to pay extra payment. Based on the results from this study, it is certain to conclude that both the doctors and inpatient of the region hospital are supporting the balance billing policy .The average score of the inpatient questionnaire is 3.305.And 93.1% of the surveyed. Doctors accepted the policy of balance billing. We encouraged the bureau of National Health Insurance to continuing communication with the public and the providers to assure the success of new policy.

The main idea of strategy map is to compensate for the exceedingly static balance scorecard and to have the four frameworks more logically arranged. Strategic action is a dynamic system existing in the four frameworks of balance scorecard. Policymakers tend to pay too much attention to the variations of the short-time measurements than the long-term structural effect of system. Through time delay and the effect of negative feedback loops, strategic actions may cause the change of loops, leading to some side effects or counterintuition. As a result, managers may fail to correctly analyze situations and make appropriate decisions, have a complete strategic planning, and have the strategic goal expectably achieved. Public Television Service is a nonprofit corporation with properties of wireless television corporation and nonprofit organization simultaneously. Based on article 2 of the law of PTS, governmental donations of foundations for which a budget is prepared in accordance with this Law shall be reduced by ten percent each year until the third fiscal year; according to article 41, the station may not broadcast business commercials¡K This clause brings about an innate problem that it prevents PTS from raising money by dealing with commercial pursuits. With governmental donations barely increased, improving funds-raising ability has become an important object of PTS. With limited financial resource, PTS requires a dynamic managerial tool to keep its balance between the object of public welfare and the budget. The purpose of this article is to discuss the dynamic relations among strategic themes, actions and measurements on the strategy map of PTS, and to map the management system by qualitative and quantitative system dynamics. According to the result of secondary data analysis and the interviews, this research constitutes the strategy map of PTS based on strategic themes of four frameworks, modeling each sub-system. After testing, basic simulating and policy simulating, we can then explore the interaction among all sub-systems. Based on the theory of improving the dynamic alignment of balance scorecard strategy in system dynamics, this research models the system of PTS by intuitional and systematically-thinking methods separately. The results shows: 1. In the systems constructed by BSC and strategy map, dynamic relations exist in each component. Strategies may turn out to be counter-intuitional owing to time delay, and the effects of positive and negative loops. 2. Policy laboratory made by system dynamics can be used to simulate the policies. Leading and lag index of BSC also have dynamic properties. Therefore, when setting strategy goals or KPI, managers have to consider the influence caused by loops and time delay. In addition, the outcome of policy and case simulation reveals: 1. If the quality of TV programs does not progress in company with its service, the system will fall into the crisis of growth limit. 2. Improving service quality one-sidedly may lead to an effect disappointing or being detected after a long time because of time delay. 3. When executing the strategy to improve the quality of TV programs (to increase the budget of TV programs), PTS should manage to raise service capacity and satisfaction to reduce the force of negative feedback loops and maintain the policy effect.

From the point of view of world, the positive results of the economic globalization are: more frequent scientific and technological exchange, more obvious international division, resource reach supreme utility. But, global economy integration, the abolition of the trade barrier, and improvement of capital mobility, have produced the serious economic problem in several areas. That is to say that this kind of laissez faire causes the international economic growth rate to be slow and large quantities of unemployment. Above-mentioned problems are very apt to happen in developing countries. A lot of economic construction of most developing countries has not been ripe yet .If they open trade and capital inflow rashly, in a situation that there is not any supplementary measure effectively, the economic development of this area is hindered because of being unable to bear the strong external pressure with assault probably .If more serious, it will also cause the terrible financial crisis. From 1964 to 1988, Brazil implemented 20 several years governance of military affairs. During 20 several years governance of military affairs, Brazil had gone through the high economic growth rate. However, since 1974, the inflation of Brazil began to be accumulating constantly, the finance and account deficit frequently were serious day by day. The Brazilian government, in order to solve the problem, since 1980, limited the capital inflow. This policy made the development in economy slower, and the inflation problem was more serious. During elected president Fernando Collor de Mello was in power, from 1990, Brazilian government determined to return to the international capital market, and then economic became better. The open policy let the exchange rate appreciate, trade that accumulate, and lasting in debt of external and account deficit frequently. Brazil faced external pressure and impact once again. From 1994, Brazil was in power by new president Fernando Henrique Cardoso. In 1999, Brazilian government canceled the fixed exchange rate system of staring at U.S. dollar, and changed to adopt the floating exchange rate system. The exchange rate of Brazil was decided by market from then on. Brazil faces the huge external pressure for a long time because of the impact of the economic globalization. A lot of countries have an optimistic view of the economic development in the future of Brazil very much. The reasons are: First, natural resources of Brazil are very abundant and enough to supply with the demand of the world; Second, Brazilian population reaches 180 millions, the huge market attracts various countries to be engaged in all kinds of trade and conduct of business. No matter from the past economic development or to the economic forecasting in the future, the economy of Brazil is closely linked with open economic policy. In other words, the imports, exports and capital mobility of Brazil have dominated the development in economy of Brazil. So, I use Balance-of-payments constrained growth rate model (BPCG model) of Thirlwall (1979) to analyze Brazilian economy. I set up adjusted BPCG model according to actual state of Brazil. I use cointegration test and estimate out the Brazilian imports and exports behavior equation, and then calculate primitive BPCG model and adjusted BPCG model. Pointed out finally, the economic growth rate estimated out from the adjusted BPCG model is closer to Brazil's actual economic growth rate than the economic growth rate estimated out from the primitive BPCG model. This shows that some assumptions of primitive BPCG model do not accord with the real state of Brazil. Such as on long terms, comparative purchasing power parity is not to be hold. Imports and exports will correspond to out different price elasticity or substitution elasticity, if face different products or the price from the different areas. Thus, in the case of Brazil, the assumption of single price and single elasticity is not to be hold. In general, the long-term economic growth rate estimated out in BPCG model roughly keeps the same with long-term real economic growth rate of Brazil. This result demonstrates that BPCG model is useful for analyzing export-led economic, and the result also supports Brazil to be an export-led economic growth country.