There are two labor insurance pension systems running in Taiwan at this moment in time; the labor insurance pension runs by the government, and the labor standards law pension system both old and new systems are the responsibility of the private companies. The labor insurance pension was introduced in 1950. Through the years due to the population ageing; people are living longer and having fewer children, the rapid changes of economy and etc. the original lump sum pension is no longer enough to sustain a standard of living for the worker-retirees. Moreover, the rate of the labor turnover is high for the reason that the majority of Taiwanese private companies are small to medium enterprises with the average life expectancy of around 13 years only. Therefore most of the workers who work for the private companies are not qualified to claim pensions after their retirements although they are covered by the labor standards law pension scheme. The pension provision intends to prevent poverty in old age but under this circumstance those retirees are not having their financial security in the old age and are creating social issues. To reinstate this issue, the labor insurance pension system has carried out by the government in January 2009, after a major update of the labor standards law pension system in July 2005, the method of repayment has changed from the defined benefit plan to the defined contribution plan in addition to allowing the qualifying years carry forward to the new employers when the workers change jobs. Furthermore, the pension repayment is revolutionized from a single lump sum payment to an individual retirement account system complemented by monthly repayments. All of these changes are to secure the worker-retirees financially in their old age. The objectives of this study disclose the transformations of the labor retirement insurance pension systems in Taiwan and the existing modification of the Labor Insurance Act, the benefits of the Labor Standards Act pension system along with the revised Labor Pension Act. A few important factors below have been concluded in this study after analysed the revise of pension benefits systems: First of all, the repayment has changed from a single lump sum payment to monthly repayments. Secondly, the method of repayment has changed from the defined benefit plan to the defined contribution plan. Finally is to determine who are safeguarded? The protection of the social insurance is not only for the small specific groups of people but the majority of individuals. As a result, nowadays the labor pension benefits systems in Taiwan have achieved the task of securing a standard living for the retired workers. The concept of this study is to learn the affect of the changing of the economic climate and increased life expectancy on the possible forthcoming pension¡¦s crisis followed by constructive proposals to anticipate the existing labor insurance pension systems meet the needs of the worker-retirees and achieve the objectives of sustainable management of the pension systems and maintain a secured society in Taiwan.

Even though the framework of mean-variance analysis is convincing, in practice, investors encounter serious drawbacks. Understandably, a more stable and rather simple method to make investment decisions without depending on the expected returns would obviously be preferred by some investors. In this study, we adopt a newly proposed equally-weighted risk contribution portfolio (ERC), without the assumption of expected returns, in order to observe its risk and return, as well as the timing of use compared to different benchmarks, the Taiwan 50 index (TWN50) and Taiwan weighted index (Y9997). For comparison, we adopt the other two commonly used methods, the minimum variance portfolio (MVP) and the equal weight portfolio (EW). It is interesting to observe the ERC¡¦s risk and return profile because, similar to the EW, it invests in every asset in a portfolio while adjusting weights to consider the marginal risk between each component. Therefore, no individual asset¡¦s risk contribution is dominated by an other and they all have the same risk contribution. In addition, to strike a balance between risk control and pursuing excess return, we incorporate arbitrage portfolios into the standard ERC portfolio; to satisfy the standard of the passive funds, we combine the minimum tracking error portfolio with the standard ERC portfolio by a specific ratio. From the TWN50 and the Y9997 cases, we presume that the problem relating to whether or not the benchmark is a full sample or a partial sample and whether it¡¦s replicable, affects the performance of the ERC. If our benchmark is a partial sample like the TWN50, the ERC strategy can outperform the benchmark and even provides some degree of defensive ability when the market trend is down.

From the implementation of National Health Insurance on March 1, 1995 in Taiwan, the public has obtained it¡¦s benefit, and it¡¦s really a blessing for Taiwanese. Following the implementation of National Health Insurance Policy, the public began having demands for National Pension due to the aging of society from 1993. As a result the authorities including the Ministry of the Interior which is in charge of National Pension, the Council of Agriculture which plans Farmer Pension, and the Council of Labor Affairs which proposes reforming Labor Pension Payment all show their attitude to take charge then positively frame each kind of pension systems. In fact, the coming of National Pension which is a blessing for the public could be the shackles to future generations. Blessing or shackles, it all depends on whether the formation of National Pension is for the public¡¦s benefit or only for the political intention. Is it for the people¡¦s lifetime protection and peaceful old age or only to make good the commitment made during the campaign? Is it a long-term, integral and foresighted consideration about people¡¦s demand or merely a short-term, sectional and realistic payback? With the basis of economic development to measure the long-term burdens and take improving financial affairs as an important condition, or, there is only one-year budget thus the local government have to raise funds and rely on central government subsidies? National Pension and National Health Insurance are both the nation¡¦s social security business, in order to benefit the public and not to recommit the same error of the current insurance systems, the authorities and other related groups should find out people¡¦s true demands and consider whether the people could afford the insurance premium but also take advantage of other countries¡¦ experience as consultation. This article is to probe into the achievement of National Pension implementation in Japan¡Xan orient country which has similar cultural background and family social formations with Taiwan.¡Xand to understand the background, current status, and the achievement of the implementation then take their strong points as an example to us. The Taiwan government planned to carry out National Pension in 2000, which is a significant social welfare policy after the implementation of National Health Insurance; unfortunately it doesn¡¦t come into effect even to this day due to the political rivalries and the substitution of political party. National Pension is a kind of compulsory savings scheme; it¡¦s a kind of insurance program and also a project of wealth redistribution. Furthermore, National Pension can be taken as the rearrangement of economic resources to regulate individual¡¦s wealth and income in the society, the arrangement of pension system would influence the management of whole economic system. The performance of pension has its dual purpose, the positive is to undertake the horizontal integration to have a healthy aged pension system; the passive is to grasp the opportunity to keep political power and electoral factors from causing the allowance or welfare systems become disordered. Lastly, to compare the main difference of pension implementation and the feasibility analysis after performance between Taiwan and Japan. Whether the pension can be put into practice or not depends on if we can achieve the most effective resources allocation of social resources, then we can see the economic benefits of pension system.

This work investigates the volatilities of amine solvents used in post-combustion CO₂ capture from coal-fired power plants. Amine volatility is one of the key criteria used in screening an amine solvent for CO₂ capture: (1) amine losses up the stack can react in the atmosphere to form ozone and other toxic compounds; (2) volatility losses can result in greater solvent make-up costs; (3) high losses will require the use of bigger water wash units, and more water, to capture fugitive amines prior to venting - these translate to higher capital and operating costs; (4) volatilities need to be measured and modeled in order to develop more accurate and robust thermodynamic models. In this work, volatility is measured using a hot gas FTIR which can determine amine, water, and CO₂ in the vapor headspace above a solution. The liquid solution is speciated by NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance). There are two key contributions made by this research work: (1) it serves as one of the largest sources of experimental data available for amine-water volatility; (2) it provides amine volatility for loaded systems (where CO₂ is present) which is a unique measurement not previously reported in the literature. This work studied the volatility of 20 alkanolamines in water at 0.5 - 1.1 molal (m) in water (< 1.5 mol% amine) at zero loading (no CO₂) from 40 ° - 70 °C. An empirical group contribution model was developed to correlate H[subscript 'amine'] to molecular structures of both alkylamines and alkanolamines. The model incorporated additional functional groups to account for cyclic structures and to distinguish between different types of alkyl groups based on the attached neighboring groups. This model represented the experimental H[subscript 'amine'], which spanned five orders in magnitude, to well within an order of magnitude of the measured values. The second component of this research involves upgrading the AspenPlus® v.7.3 model of MDEA-PZ-CO₂-H₂O system primarily by improving MDEA thermodynamics for MDEA-H₂O, MDEA-CO₂-H₂O, and MDEA-PZ-CO₂-H₂O. A key modification was made to include the carbonate (CO₃²⁻) species into the model chemistry set which greatly improved the fit of CO₂ solubility for MDEA-CO₂-H₂O at ultra lean loading ([alpha]) for 0.001 < [alpha] < 0.01. With MDEA-PZ-H₂O, no MDEA-PZ cross interaction parameters were needed to match the blend volatility. Ultimately, both the blend volatility, at unloaded and loaded conditions, along with speciation were adequately represented by the upgraded model. The final component of this research involves screening the volatilities of novel amines at unloaded and nominal lean loading condition from 40 ° - 70 °C (absorber operating conditions). The volatility of tertiary and hindered amines, such as MDEA and AMP, respectively, is not a strong function of loading because these amines are unable to form stable carbamates. Conversely, the volatility of mono-amines and of diamines decreases by ~3 and 5-20 times, respectively, due to a much greater extent of carbamate-forming speciation. PZ or a blend having a diamine promoted by PZ would be favorable for CO₂ capture due to the low volatility of the diamines in loaded solution. . Finally, in order of increasing degree of salting out as reflected by the increasing magnitude of the system asymmetric amine activity coefficient, 7 m MDEA < 4.8 m AMP ~ 7 m MDEA/2 m PZ < 8 m PZ < 7 m MEA. / text

Today, software ecosystems have become transparent, allowing users to submit issue reports and new feature requests to the development team. The more permeable boundaries of ecosystems provide an open culture paradigm where stakeholders, customers, developers and other user groups have the access to participate during all phases of requirement development. One example of this open culture in software ecosystems is found in work item discussions, which are aimed to improve how requirements are elicited, analyzed and validated. In this thesis, we investigate who participates in requirements discussions, identifying and focusing on emergent contributors; discussants that are not officially part of the development team or required to participate, but contribute to work item discussions. We report form a case study of online requirement discussion in IBM’s collaborative lifecycle management. We find that external contributors emerge frequently during discussions and that they mediate the clarification of requirements. Our results indicate that it is important for emergent contributors to be involved early in the requirements process, otherwise there is a negative effect on the work items’ progress. We discuss the implications of our findings for both practitioners and researchers with suggestions for future studies. / Graduate / 0984 / 0291 / 0790 / aminah.yussuf@gmail.com

A just society must provide a range of goods: police protection, education, medical care, legal representation, to name only a few. But how should a just society organize production of these goods? To ask this question is to broach the topic of productive justice. We need a theory of this topic in order to explain the content of the ideal of social justice. A certain theory of productive justice is now widely taken for granted. It has the following commitments. Every able beneficiary of just institutions owes some productive contribution. There is no free-loading on just institutions. Therefore, income support from the state should normally be conditioned on working. Those who would be idle must find a way to support themselves. Beyond this general requirement, however, each citizen gets to decide his own contribution, because each citizen has a right to choose his occupation. The state may not assign occupations or specify anyone’s place of work. Nor may it direct anyone to work longer than he prefers, provided he is not loafing on public support. Instead, labor must be allocated through a market, where everyone is free to decline any given job offer. The labor market thus fixes the possibilities of just production: the socioeconomic goals that a society may justly accomplish are limited to those that can be pursued in or alongside a labor market. This theory is now widely accepted. I argue that its central elements are importantly mistaken. Income support from the state should not normally be conditioned on working. To think this is to misunderstand the nature of each citizen’s contributory duty. Nor is it the case that a just state may never assign urgent jobs or otherwise restrict occupational decisions. To think this is to misunderstand several of the basic rights and liberties of citizenship. In my dissertation, I defend a different theory, with three elements. The first is a theory of every citizen’s right to free choice of occupation. The second is a theory of the scope and basis of the economic duties of modern citizenship. The third is a theory of the permissibility conditions of restricting labor market liberties. Together these three elements comprise a new theory of productive justice. / Government

My dissertation consists of three essays on lobbying activities by special interest groups. The first paper, "Ex Post Lobbying," systematically documents ex post lobbying, the process by which firms allocate resources during the implementation stage after congressional authorization. Previous theories assume all lobbying is done ex ante, where lobbying activities occur before Congress votes. However, my analysis of over 633,731 lobbying reports demonstrates that almost half of lobbying activity from 1998 to 2012, that targeted specific bills, occurred ex post. I argue that the goal of ex post lobbying is to allow firms to bargain over private benefits that will arise from legislation by targeting regulatory rule-making processes that clarify non-specific parts of bills. Ex post lobbying provides a chance for non-participants in the ex ante lobbying stage to claim their share from government policy.

Contingent valuation has been given a psychological interpretation, by Kahneman and colleagues, that claims willingness to pay bids represent psychological attitudes rather than personal economic valuations. Evidence reported here shows the need to qualify the role of this attitudinal explanation. In contradiction to the attitudinal hypothesis, the decision to bid zero or positive appears to represent a complex psychological appraisal. Furthermore, evidence of bid clustering on currency denominations implies fundamental differences concerning how people respond to a monetary scale. Whether interpreted as charitable contributions or imprecise welfare estimates there are serious implications for how economists interpret and use stated preference responses. (authors' abstract)

Plate girders are fabricated in situations where standard structural shapes do not possess the required strength necessary to carry applied loads. In many instances, plate girders are tapered so that the resistance to bending is proportional to the bending moment, creating cost effective, aesthetically pleasing structures. The AISC 2010 Specifications accurately predict the flexural capacity of tapered plate girders but recent research has suggested that the required shear strength is overly conservative. The researchers postulate that the required shear strength is overly conservative due to an effect known as modified shear that has been neglected from the AISC 2010 Specifications but has been suggested by several authors. This research investigates both analytically and experimentally, tapered member ultimate shear strength considering a “modified” and “unmodified” applied shear approach. A new design formula introduced by Lee et al. (2008) will be used in conjunction with the AISC 2010 Specification in making ultimate shear strength comparisons. A total of 12 specimens are tested to failure, ten tapered and two prismatic built-up plate girders.

Notre thèse a pour ambition de faire émerger un niveau linguistique supérieur à la phrase et dont la prise encompte est indispensable à toute caractérisation et compréhension de ce qu'est un texte. A ce titre, lapragmatique, comme science du dire, est sans doute la plus à même de fournir une caractérisationsatisfaisante de ce niveau. Dans sa conception gricéenne, elle a mis en avant un principe de coopération etl'existence de maximes conversationnelles, sans approfondir, ni même discuter, le niveau auquel ce principeet ces maximes seraient attachés, celui-là même de contribution, alors que c'est précisément cette notion-ciqui, a priori, et quand on considère la maxime de quantité, est de fait un ensemble de phrases (ou mêmed'énoncés), ensemble qui certes peut à l'occasion se réduire à un(e) seul(e) énoncé (phrase) mais qui, dansla plupart des cas, définit un niveau langagier intermédiaire entre l'énoncé et la totalité de ce qui est dit dansl'échange.La thèse montre alors principalement que ces contributions sont des ensembles de phrases satisfaisant descontraintes pragmatiques, avec, entre autres, une contrainte de complétude forte, issue de la maxime dequantité, que l'on pose comme heuristique. De fait, les textes sont des contributions (plus précisément desmacro-contributions constituées de micro-contributions) et doivent être décrits comme tels. L'étudeempirique, appliquée au roman de formation, de la pertinence textuelle, de l'intégration textuelle et de ladisposition textuelle met à jour un certain nombre de phénomènes qui caractérisent le texte en tant que tel.