Taiwan¡¦s information industry has made significant improvement in the past decades, especially for the electronic information hardware, which stands in a dominant position in the world. Taiwan now is the third largest electronic information hardware region all over the world. As for the traditional industry toward the high-tech information products, Taiwan also has steady foundation in systems integration, information security, and embedded software. Now, almost all the information products are rooted with ICs. From 1970s, every ten years marked a changing point, and, in 1990s, such changing period is reduced to three years. Because of the fast improvement pace, the relevant high-tech industry is positioned in the extremely unstable managing level, in which the replacement incident is on the stage repeatedly. It is well-acknowledged that the value of high-tech products is the application and the acceptance level of software. All hardware equipments are designed under the indicative software. Therefore, numerous information products have been failed in the severe competition. The high ratio of failure, especially the highly risk from new products is said, according to the Products Development and Management Association (PDMA) (US), the average failure rate of information products is 41%, and there is only one successful product in the market in every 6.6 new ideas. Thus, this thesis interviews some related managers to research the reasons of failure in information products development when entering the markets, and make the relevant indicative analysis. Hopefully, this study can be an important reference for enterprises when devoting or applying to information products development. Study Purposes: 1. Research the reason of failure in information products when entering markets. 2. From the meeting with the managers, the ¡§key factors¡¨ of product failure are examined, and then to make analysis as references to avoid failure risks. Combining the interview results, mentioned theory and real cases, the paper has compared in depth and drawn a conclusion that the main reasons to new information products failure consist of the following elements as popularity and development degree of their ambient products (compatibility), control of market changes, competors and failure cost, the ability and technology to develop new products etc.

The intension model of purchasing houses for Kaohsiung female consumers

Evapotranspiration rates (ET) and consumptive water use (CWU) were measured for three desert turfgrasses using weighing lysimeters with a calcined clay growth medium. Water use rates were compared over a two-year study for 'Sea Isle I' seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum) and A138 desert saltgrass (Distichlis spicata), along with 'Tifway' bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon x Cynodon transvaalensis). Saltgrass showed elevated leaf canopy temperatures for extended periods before exhibiting visible wilt symptoms while 'Tifway' bermudagrass and seashore paspalum wilted readily, even at relatively high soil water contents. Saltgrass transpired for 11.9 d on average before drought stress was observed. Seashore paspalum maintained leaf turgor, on average 5.6 d without irrigation, whereas 'Tifway' bermudagrass averaged 4.0 d before requiring irrigation. The two-year average Kc values for three grasses before self-imposed drought was expressed by visible leaf wilting were 0.85, 0.79, and 0.74, for A138 saltgrass, 'Sea Isle I' seashore paspalum, and 'Tifway' bermudagrass, respectively.

Blow fly (Diptera: Calliphoridae) interactions in decomposition ecology are well studied; however, the non-consumptive effects (NCE) of predators on the behavior and development of prey species have yet to be examined. The effects of these interactions and the resulting cascades in the ecosystem dynamics are important for species conservation and community structures. The resulting effects can impact the time of colonization (TOC) of remains for use in minimum post-mortem interval (mPMI) estimations. The development of the predacious blow fly, Chrysomya rufifacies (Macquart) was examined and determined to be sensitive to muscle type reared on, and not temperatures exposed to. Development time is important in forensic investigations utilizing entomological evidence to help establish a mPMI. Validation of the laboratory-based development data was done through blind TOC calculations and comparisons with known TOC times to assess errors. A range of errors was observed, depending on the stage of development of the collected flies, for all methods tested with no one method providing the most accurate estimation. The NCE of the predator blow fly on prey blow fly, Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius) behavior and development were observed in the laboratory. Gravid female adult attraction was significantly greater to resources with predatory larvae rather than prey larvae and oviposition occurred on in the presence of heterospecific (predatory) and conspecific larvae equally. However, the life stages necessary for predation to occur never overlapped and so these results may not be as surprising as they seem. Conversely, exposing prey larvae to predator cues through larval excretions/secretions led to larger prey larvae and faster times to pupariation when appropriate life stages overlapped. Differences in size and development times of prey larvae in the presence of predatory cues could lead to errors when estimating the mPMI. These data also partially explain the ability of C. macellaria to survive in the presence of Ch. rufifacies. Colonization of a resource with late instar Ch. rufifacies enhanced development and size of resulting larvae indicating that lag colonization, rather than being a primary colonizer, could become an alternate strategy for C. macellaria to survive the selective pressures of the predator, Ch. rufifacies. The differing effects of temperature on Ch. rufifacies and C. macellaria may also lend an advantage to C. macellaria over the predacious Ch. rufifacies in an environment with variable temperatures unlike what Ch. rufifacies is adapted for.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The climate variability and climate change-induced events experienced worldwide have caused a significant decrease in the rainfall volume. South Africa is considered to be one of the driest countries in the world, as it receives an average annual rainfall that is lower than the global annual average. To sustain and grow the agricultural sector, South Africa supplements the low rainfall with its freshwater resources, for irrigation purposes. This action is necessary, especially for meeting the high water requirements of the South African fruit industry, as it is one of the major exporters of fruit in the world. Research has been conducted in an attempt to accurately quantify the water requirements of various fruits, which will assist farmers to save water, to increase their productivity and to managing their irrigation water. However, a knowledge of the water use, actual water consumption rates and the factors that drive them, is minimal and inadequate, and this has had a detrimental effect on the effective management of irrigation water and water allocation by the responsible stakeholders.

Irrigation agriculture is the largest use of water (~80%) in the United States ('Irrigation and Water Use', 2016) A combination of irrigation and precipitation infiltrates through the Earth's subsurface and represents the primary inputs to an agricultural field's groundwater system. This water propagates down from the surface, with some of it recharging the underlying groundwater storage as return flow. The difference between the amount of irrigation water applied and the return flow to the aquifer, represents the consumptive use of the system. The alterations in the quality and distribution of water from groundwater pumping and irrigation places greater emphasis on the need to understand the connection between agricultural consumption and subsurface groundwater flux. Temperature fluctuations in the Earth's shallow subsurface are mainly governed by spatial and temporal variations in temperature at the ground surface (Hatch et al., 2006). These temperature signals at depth are primarily controlled by advection, dispersion, and thermal conduction. It has been shown for streambeds that when temperature propagates through the subsurface, it is a nonlinear function of fluid velocity, the frequency of the surface temperature variations, and the sediment and fluid thermal properties (Stallman, 1965). This information has been useful for understanding fluxes for saturated conditions such as in stream systems, but has not yet been applied to understand consumptive use in unsaturated conditions such as in agricultural systems. Temperature propagation in unsaturated conditions is different than saturated conditions due to changes in soil and thermal properties. Previous models have had difficulty estimating groundwater fluxes for some unsaturated conditions. This study experiments with the possibility of using a combination of MATLAB and HYDRUS 1D to infer unsaturated groundwater fluxes, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and saturated water content. One application of this type of flux estimation could be the inference of root water uptake and the consumptive use of an agricultural system. The method is designed to calculate root water uptake under steady-state conditions; and therefore might have limitations for quantifying consumptive use in field applications.It is beneficial to research the consumptive use in agricultural systems in order to gain understanding of the effects of irrigation on the total flux in groundwater storage. Other applications of consumptive use include: site specific farm efficiency and crop use parameters, nonpoint source pollution to estimate nutrient fluxes, irrigation efficiency, soil salinization, waste isolation, and slope stability.

The focus of my thesis research is on the interplay between individual behavior, population dynamics and community-level processes within zooplankton communities in coastal Maine. The target organisms of my thesis work are marine copepods. Copepods are small (1-10 mm) crustaceans that perform the essential ecosystem function of consuming and assimilating primary production (phytoplankton) making it available to higher trophic levels such as commercially important fishes. Therefore, copepod population growth is of critical importance to marine food webs. Fertilization limitation has been suggested as a constraint on copepod population growth but field surveys describing the prevalence of fertilization limitation are lacking. During my doctoral research, I explored the in situ fertilization success of two marine copepod species, Temora longicornis and Eurytemora herdmani in coastal Maine. I collected monthly zooplankton samples and analyzed clutches from field-caught females using an egg-staining technique. My results indicate that both species exhibit fertilization limitation in nature and the factors correlated with their fertilization span population, community and ecosystem level factors. To determine a causal relationship between predator density and copepod mating success, I conducted laboratory experiments to assess the effects of a common mysid shrimp predator, Neomysis americana on Eurytemora herdmani mating success. I subjected males and females to predators or predator cues. I found that the presence of a mysid predator, or only a predator cue, reduced copulation frequency and spermatophore transfer leading to a 38-61% decrease in E. herdmani nauplii production. These results suggest that mysid predators can constrain copepod population growth through non-consumptive processes. To determine the effects that resources can impose on copepod behavior, I explored the behavioral and fitness consequences of Temora longicornis ingesting Alexandrium fundyense, a phytoplankton species that forms harmful algal blooms in coastal Maine. My results suggest that ingesting A. fundyense causes copepods to swim faster and with more directional persistence compared to control algae. Temora longicornis increased their average swimming velocity by 24%, which leads to a 24-54% increase in their theoretical encounter rate with predators. Therefore, these findings suggest behaviorally mediated copepod-algal interactions may have significant impacts on harmful algal bloom dynamics and the fate of toxins in marine food webs.

For the past 2 years a project has been carried on by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station and the United States Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, in cooperation with the Utah State Engineer, in the Ashley and Ferron valleys of Utah to determine the consumptive use of water in these areas. This report is the preliminary part of the third year of study. It includes a determination of unit consumptive use .. values for the major agricultural crops. These values will later be used by the Soil Conservation Service and Experiment Station in determining the valley consumptive use by the integration method. This will be compared with the valley consumptive use as determined by the inflow-outflow method

The inadequacy of water and power supplies in Utah for agriculture, for industry, for domestic and community consumption has retarded the State's economic growth. Shortages of water and hyroelectric power are the principle impediments to the full realization of other potentials of Utah, that is, the full use of its arable lands, the wide and diversified use of its industrial raw materials, and the unrestricted development of its communities. The problem of securing additional sources of water and power has resolved itself into one of major concern. The objective of this study was to determine unit values of consuptive use of water by the major crops (alfalfa, small grains, and pasture) in the Ashley and Ferron Creek Areas of Utah. The consumptive use by the individual field crops was based on measurements of the depletion of moisture in the soil. Evapo-transpiration tank experiments were conducted in Ashley Valley throught the growing season and the volumes of water consumed were measured directly. Yield data were obtained from field samples and comparisons between yield and consumptive use were observed.

Non-consumptive effects that predators have on prey are important to ecosystems. The perceived risk of predation can alter feeding behavior. Giving-up density (GUD) experiments have been a foundational method to evaluate perceived predation risk, but rely on the assumption that food preferences are absolute. However, nutritional preferences are context dependent and can change with risk. In my first chapter, I used spiders and grasshoppers to test the hypothesis that covariance in nutritional preferences and risk may confound the interpretation of GUD experiments. My results demonstrate that predation risk and nutritional preferences covary and can confound interpretation of GUD experiments. In my second chapter, I use a behavioral observation experiment to further explore non-consumptive effects, as well as the movement of prey in response to predation risk.