This thesis explored, as its major aim, the crystallographic and compositional characteristics of a particular type of peridotitic garnet associated with kimberlite. This garnet has a highly sinusoidal rare-earth element (REE) pattern as its distinguishing feature. Before the main research question could be addressed, a technique had to be developed that enabled the rapid and straight-forward acquisition of a full profile digital X-ray diffractogram from a single sub-milligram crystal fragment. After extensive experimentation and testing, successful development and realization of a method that is capable of producing such data was achieved. The next step of this research project was to empirically investigate and assess the crystal lattice strain model (CLSM) of Blundy and Wood (1994). Careful analyses of the REE present in a suite of clinopyroxenes were compared to the crystal structure data given from the XRD technique outlined above. Clinopyroxene is particularly useful for such an assessment because the radius of the M2 site in this mineral is between the largest and smallest REE, making the distribution of REE particularly sensitive to variation of the M2 site, which in turn is a direct consequence of the overall pyroxene structure. Subsequent to illustrating that XRD data could be collected on such small material and the XRD data and structural data given from the CLSM correlate strongly, peridotitic garnets with sinusoidal REE patters were investigated. The conclusions drawn in the first two contributions – namely that it was possible to collect accurate and precise XRD data from sub-milligram specimens and that the crystal structure and REE distribution were directly related – were imperative for the deduction of conclusions in the final, major research question. The XRD analysis of many garnets with and without sinusoidal REE patterns showed the presence of a small amount of an additional phase in some of these garnets. While this phase (2 out of 3 peaks indexed as possibly orthorhombic perovskite) is not present in sufficient quantities to give rise to such a strong sinusoidal segment in the garnet REE pattern, it prompted the critical step forward in formulating a working hypothesis for the otherwise inexplicable REE patterns. Specifically, I posit that many of the sinusoidal garnets may originally have precipitated as a very high pressure phase (in the mantle transition zone or deeper) that subsequently underwent a subsolidus isochemical transformation to garnet. Possible original precursor mineralogy is a combination of two perovskites or a perovskite + iv garnet assemblage. Theoretical calculation using experimental partition coefficients demonstrated that a mixture of Ca-perovskite (CaPv) and Mg-perovskite (MgPv) REE patterns in the approximate proportions of 10% CaPv and 90% MgPv produce a REE diagram that is strikingly similar to those observed in sinusoidal single phase garnet. It has been shown experimentally that with increasing depth in the mantle, garnet plus a progressively increasing CaPv component is the stable mineral assemblage. Initial precipitation of two perovskites or CaPv + garnet as cumulates from a deep magma ocean would preserve the REE distribution of these minerals. Subsequent exhumation of such an assemblage would result in the retrogressive subsolidus phase transformation to a mineral stable at conditions of T and P of the shallow mantle environment, i.e. garnet, while retaining the REE pattern of the initial precipitate mineral assemblage. While this working hypothesis will require many more tests, its proposal may have significant implications for the mantle structure.

Many fuel spray characterization studies to date have been conducted in quiescent environments with single-hole fuel injectors. However, in actuality, multi-hole injectors spray into direct injection engine cylinders where significant air swirling and tumbling exist to promote fuel atomization and air-fuel mixing, which result in more efficient combustion. For this reason, researchers have begun developing correlations for fuel sprays where a jet of air acts perpendicularly to the fuel spray, also known as a cross airflow or crossflow, so as to more realistically predict fuel spray characteristics in direct injection engines. Accordingly, there is a need for a foundation of experimental data reflecting the specific conditions of fuel spray in cross airflow which can then be used for model validation and future engine design and development. In this study, fuel sprays are characterized with a commercial 8-hole fuel injector in a wind tunnel enclosure capable of cross airflows upwards of 200m/s. Particle image velocimetry was used to measure air velocities and capture pulsed spray events of biodiesel, diesel, and biodiesel-diesel blend fuels. Spray images were processed and analyzed in LaVision's DaVis and in MATLAB to calculate spray penetration length and axis deflection angle under varying cross airflow velocities, fuel injection pressures, and fuel types. Results show that strong cross airflows can decrease spray penetration by up to 44% and deflect the spray axis by up to 10.5° when compared to the same spray in a quiescent environment. Additional experiments reveal that biodiesel experiences slower spray progression when compared with diesel, resulting in shorter spray penetrations in the early phase of the spray development (up to 0.7ms after the start of injection, or ASOI). The angle between the fuel injector axis and the air jet axis plays an important role in determining the resultant spray characteristics. This angle should be considered in future correlations.

Research on reporting crime to the police on the individual- and incident- levels has received much attention over the years. However, many studies examining neighborhood-level effects on reporting are limited in scope. The current study examines the relationship between neighborhood characteristics central to social disorganization theory and police notification. Data for this study were derived from Warner’s (2004) study entitled “Informal Social Control of Crime in High Drug Use Neighborhoods in Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky, 2000.” The analysis uses OLS regression models to isolate how different neighborhood characteristics impact reporting. Findings indicate that disadvantage and mobility have a positive effect on reporting but are mediated by social cohesion. Social cohesion has a negative effect on reporting while confidence in police had no significant effects. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.

A 2-year winter grazing and feedlot finishing trial (Exp 1) and subsequent in-situ nutrient disappearance study (Exp 2) were conducted to evaluate the effects of swath grazing forage barley (Hordeum vulgare, cv. Ranger) or foxtail millet (Setaria italica, cv. Golden German) compared to grass-legume hay fed in drylot on calf performance. In trial1 in each of 2 years, 120 spring born Angus calves (60 steers, 60 heifers) were fall weaned, stratified by weight, allocated into 20-head groups then assigned randomly to one of the three replicated (n=2) backgrounding (BG) systems. Backgrounding systems were (i) swath graze barley (BR); (ii) swath graze millet (ML); and (iii) bunk fed ground hay drylot (DL). Swath grazed calves were limit fed in 8 ha paddocks with 3 d grazing periods, using electric fencing for 96 d each year. All groups received a pelleted supplement at 0.62% BW. Calves were weighed at start, every 21 d and end of background period. Following the BG period, calves were placed in feedlot, separated by sex and BG treatment and fed a similar finishing ration and harvested at a targeted endpoint of 12 mm back fat. Forage samples collected every 21 d were analyzed for DM, CP and digestible energy (DE) and change in nutritive quality over the grazing period. DE content was greatest (P<0.05) for BR (2.6 Mcal/kg) and least for DL hay (2.2 Mcal/kg). Quality of all the three forages did not change over the grazing period except for an increase (P<0.05) in NDF of millet. Calf ADG was greatest (P <0.05) for BR compared to ML or DL, while dry matter intake (DMI) of the BR calves tended to be greater (P=0.11) than ML or DL calves. No treatment differences were observed in the finishing ADG (P>0.05) and carcass characteristics (P>0.05) of calves from the three backgrounding systems. In Exp 2, four dry ruminally cannulated Holstein cows fed ground grass hay were used in an in-situ degradability study to determine the extent of degradation and rumen kinetic parameters of the 3 forages used in Exp 1. Effective degradability of DM and CP iii were similar for barley and millet and greater (P<0.05) than grass legume hay while NDF degradability (P<0.05) of millet was greater than that of barley or grass legume hay. These findings indicate that swath grazing barley or foxtail millet fed to beef calves resulted in similar or decrease performance compared to a traditional drylot pen system. Cost of gain for the barley swath grazed backgrounding system calves was 43 and 60.5% lower compared to a swath grazed millet or drylot system, respectively. The economics of these systems would indicate that backgrounding of calves on swath grazed barley is a more efficient and low cost system compared to drylot.

As time goes by, managers realize that exceptional employees are the crucial factors which affect the success or failure of companies. The attitude and feelings of employees are affected by Job Characteristics, and it will further affect the Job Involvement of employees. When employees go into the works which are provided with good job characteristics, managers still need considering the differences between employees. According to some researches, Self-Esteem play an important role in many aspects of employees¡¦ life, so it can be used to measuring the differences between employees. The purposes of the study are to explore the relationship between job characteristics and job involvement, then add self-esteem as a moderator variable to explore the relationship among these variables and make further suggestions to modern companies for arranging job duties and selecting employees. The objects of the study were the Taiwan workers of a case company. The study adopted a convenience sampling method. 200 questionnaires were distributed and resulted in 177 valid responses, comprising the effective return rate of 88.5%. The software SPSS was used for correlation analysis, regression analysis and T test to test the hypothesis. The findings show that there is a significant positive correlation between job characteristics and job involvement, then add self-esteem as a moderator variable to find that there is still a significant positive correlation between job characteristics and job involvement in those workers who are in high level of self-esteem ; on the other hand, there isn¡¦t a positive relationship between job identity, job feedback and job involvement in those workers who are in low level of self-esteem. But there is still a positive relationship between skill variety, job importance, job autonomy, and job involvement.

The gradually increasing pressure of the organization¡¦s job demands becomes a universal and unchangeable fact. Most studies focused on the normal causal relationships between work stress and its outcomes rather than the reversed and reciprocal relationships between them. From the view points of drift hypothesis and gain and loss spiral resulting from the conservation of resource theory, the present study probed the reciprocal relationships between job characteristics, burnout and health. Two-wave panel data were collected from nurses both in public and private hospitals in southern Taiwan. Pre-test data were used to test the Cronbach's £\ and confirmatory factor analysis for each scale. Structural equation modeling implemented with AMOS 5.0 was employed to test the fitness of the hypothesized models. Through a series of nested models competing, our findings showed that the final models fitted well to the data. Our results proved some cross-lagged effects including the normal causal relationships between psychosocial job characteristics and burnout, the reversed causal relationships between burnout and mental, physical health, burnout has partial mediating relationships between psychosocial job characteristics and mental, physical health, and the reciprocal causal relationships between psychosocial job characteristics, burnout, and mental, physical health. According to our findings, managerial implications can be suggested that managers should pay attention to employees¡¦ burnout and introduce some managerial practices immediately in order to prevent the harmful outcomes of health. It can be achieved by higher job control to alleviate employees¡¦ job strain. Organizations should increase employee¡¦s job control such as job redesign, flexible work schedules, and goal setting. In addition, burnout can be affected by mental and physical health as well. From the viewpoint of organizational intervention, stress management programs can help to improve employees¡¦ physical and mental health, which will in turn release employee¡¦s burnout. Organizations will gain a competitive advantage if they make better use of their human resources.

Due to ineffectiveness of traditional advertising, the notion of "product placement" quickly reinforced to be a new forming trend in recent years. Companies incorporate their products into movie films or television media. Those placements attempt to generate positive attitudes of target audiences for the brand. Unfortunately, this strategic intent does not always work. Using the magazine as the medium, this research investigates how to optimize the effects of placement characteristics and advertising position. Product placement is presented in a fictitious article about the introduction to new Canon digital camera. An experiment of 2 (placement characteristics: prominent placement vs. subtle placement) ¡Ñ 4 (advertising position¡Gbefore the article vs. next to the article vs. after the article vs. no advertisement) factorial design is conducted. Eight different scenarios are established through fictitious a product placement, and eight experimental conditions are developed. The advertising effectiveness is measured by purchase intention and attitudes toward the brand. The results suggest that a subtle placement is more effective than a prominent placement. More importantly, an interaction of placement characteristics and advertising position is observed. The results indicate that product placement is most likely to backfire when a brand advertisement is shown next to the placement article. According to these findings, marketers should consider the ¡§placement characteristics¡¨ of their brands before choosing an appropriate advertisement position appearing in the product placement.

The main purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between the characteristics of board composition and earnings management. It is a case study of steel industry and telecommunications industry ,which have state-owned enterprises after privatization. From the perspective of earnings management, the Modified Jones Model is used for the detection of earnings management ,and the period of the study samples is from 2005 to 2007. There are six independent variables .They are the proportion of shareholding directors and supervisors, the pledged share ratio of directors and supervisors , the proportion of shareholding foreign investors, the proportion of shareholding government, the number of independent directors and the if the board has set the labor director or not. SPSS statistical software is used to do empirical analysis. The empirical results of this study shows that there is significant positively correlated between the proportion of shareholding directors and supervisors and earnings management ; there is significant negatively correlated between the proportion of shareholding foreign investors and earnings management ; there is significant negatively correlated between the proportion of shareholding government and earnings management. Above all , part of the variables of characteristics of board composition in this study are not significantly affected earnings management , resulting in some of the hypotheses do not hold .Thus, this study suggests that the concept of corporate governance in Taiwan is not already universal yet in the study samples, and Taiwan's independent directors just set up in the beginning stages of implementation. Besides, the labor director only interest in the labor rights issues, not in earnings management issues , and also they do not have the ability to judge them.

This study treated one of the top three securities firms, S, in Taiwan as the subject, and conducted cross-sectional analysis on all dealers¡¦ personal information and performance. By exploring the dealers¡¦ personality traits, this study probed into the effect on the dealers¡¦ job performance, and attempted to find the key success factors of their job performance from the traits of the dealers¡¦ physical dimension, experience or numerological characters. Finally, this study attempted to recognize the dealers¡¦ key success factors. The findings can serve as references for securities firms¡¦ employment and management of the dealers, in order to contribute to the personnel affair management in security industry. Unlike past studies that use questionnaire survey as the research method, this study massively analyzed the internal data of the company. The research was conducted in 2010, and collected 1175 samples of the dealers in the securities firm S. The variables of the dealers¡¦ job performance are the dealers¡¦ yearly market share of spot share, purchase amount of spot share, and net fee income. Regarding the dealers¡¦ personality traits, there are three dimensions (physical dimension, experience and numerological characters), including five variables. Empirical analysis is conducted by basic descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The main findings are summarized as follows: 1) There is a significant relationship between the dealers¡¦ job performance and ages, and it reveals a significant difference. Female dealers¡¦ job performance is significantly superior to male dealers, indicating that physical dimension will influence job performance. 2) There is a positive relationship between the dealer¡¦ working years and job performance, indicating that experience will influence job performance. 3) There is a significant relationship between the dealers¡¦ job performance and star signs, and it reveals a significant difference. Sagittarius is advantageous for the dealers¡¦ business, indicating that numerological characters will influence job performance. This study concludes that the interaction between the dealers¡¦ gender and working years (star signs) significantly influences the job performance. Keywords: Securities dealer; personality traits; job performance; analysis of variance

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between five factors: teacher efficacy, teacher beliefs, cultural responsive classroom management, cultural awareness, and cultural sensitivity among African American, European American and Hispanic American elementary school teachers. The five factors were part of eight factors originating from the Cultural Awareness and Belief Inventory (CABI) given to Pre-kindergarten through Grade 12 teachers in an urban public school district in Houston, Texas during the 2005-2006 school year. A MANOVA using SPSS was conducted for the sample of 208 teachers from grades kindergarten through fourth to assess whether differences exist between the ethnic groups. The five factors served as the dependent variables and the ethnicities of the teachers were the independent variables. A further analysis was conducted of the elementary schools which participated in the CABI for two purposes. The first purpose was to ascertain the number of teachers with strong efficacy beliefs, and the second purpose was to identify common and distinctive characteristics among those schools. Results were analyzed using standardized test scores from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) as well as Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS). The results of the MANOVA revealed a significant difference among the teacher ethnic groups only with Cultural Sensitivity. Further tests revealed the difference in Cultural Sensitivity, which could be explained by ethnicity, was relatively small. While African American teachers obtained slightly higher mean scores on some of the items related to the factors, the three teacher ethic groups had similar mean scores in the majority of the items. Each of the teacher groups demonstrated an overall optimism for the five factors, reflecting positive beliefs about African American students and their capabilities to achieve in school. Each of the five urban schools had similar but also distinctive characteristics. The analysis of the schools with high teacher efficacy revealed them to have a high number of economically disadvantaged students. The only other commonality was very high retention rates among the schools. The high retention rates were inconsistent with practices of effective schools.