Medicine cures and kills people. In some advanced nations, prescription transparency is achieved through the separation of prescribing and dispensing, which further leads to public examination of prescriptions. Such an operation results in a restriction mechanism to prevent misuse and abuse of drugs and to guarantee the safety of consumers. Taiwan initiated the separation of prescribing and dispensing on March 1, 1997; however, most people do not recognize the significance of the system and conclude the issue to be an interest dispute between doctors and pharmacists. In the separation of prescribing and dispensing, disputes over the right of dispensation between doctors and pharmacists are commonly seen, but literatures are rarely found to review from consumers' position. This study plans to investigate consumers' viewpoints in respect of prescription transparency and understand its effect on satisfaction. Consequently, this study would be the benchmark for the government and health care sectors in promoting the separation of prescribing and dispensing. The study found the followings: 1. The discrepancy between satisfaction and attention to drug information is 0.88. Most people are used to nontransparent prescriptions, so such non-transparency does not cause significant dissatisfaction. 2. Among the people interviewed, the prescription transparency service they receive is 100% in academic medical centers, 66% in hospitals, and 23% in clinics. 3. 52.3% of the interviewees pays strong attention to drug information, 31.8% pays attention, 11.4% pays little attention, 2.8% pays very little attention and 1.7% do not pay attention at all. 4. The results show the diversity of demand to prescription transparency. Public displays different recognition to the importance of the list of medications: 82.5% thinks listing medication titles for easy reference. 81.9% considers the list represents a sense of responsibility from doctors and their prescriptions. 65.0% keeps the list for later use or for resolving medical disputes. 35.6% uses the list to enrich knowledge in medication. And 1.1% considers the list insignificant in all aspects. 5. Under the condition of non-transparent prescriptions, the educational level will influence the newly-developed factor in satisfaction. In other words, highly educated people tend to care more about prescription transparency

Monomer 4,4¡¦¡¦¡¦¡¦-Difluore-3,3¡¦¡¦¡¦¡¦-bis(trifluoromethyl)-2¡¦¡¦,3¡¦¡¦,5¡¦¡¦,6¡¦¡¦-triphenyl (M4) were converted to novel poly(arylene ether)s by nucleophilic displacement reaction with several bisphenols in this study, then we called them : P-A1, P-A2, P-B1, P-B2. These polymers exhibit weightaverage molecular weight (Mw) between 2.2¡Ñ10^4 to 2.2¡Ñ10^5 g/mol. The molecular weight were investigated and confirmed by Mass and GPC. The molecular structures were investigated and confirmed by NMR and FT-IR.Thermal analysis physics studies with these polymers confirmed by Thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It is indicated that Td 5% of these polymers were 450¢XC ~ 548¢XC in TGA and Tg of these polymers were 303¢XC ~ 324¢XC in DSC.Besides, these polymers not were observed apparent crystallizing point, so we consider that they are not easy crystallized. Therefore, they could make manufacture in higher temperature and have higher thermal stability.In photophysical property of polymeric thin films, we obtained absorption wavelength that was 232nm ~ 300nm in UV-Vis absorption spectra and excitation wavelength that was 362nm ~ 368nm in PL spectra. Furthermore, the transmission spectra of polymeric thin films showed that visible light transparency were up to 83%. Besides, we used Ellipsometer to measure refractive index(n) that is 1.33 ~ 1.49.In drop shape analysis system, contact angles of the polymeric thin films are more than 109.8¢X. They show that the polymer thin films have low polarity and good hydrophobicity. By above material properties of these polymers, they have high thermal stabilities, high optical transparency, low polarity and good hydrophobicity. These good material properties are doing as a plastic substrate of devices or panel display.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden neue Nanopartikel/Polymer-Kompositmaterialien und Methoden zur ihrer Herstellung entwickelt. Durch die Verwendung lumineszierender, anorganischer Nanopartikel und transparenter Polymere konnte für verschiedene Systeme die Lumineszenz als Funktion auf die Nanokomposite übertragen werden. Zunächst wurden in allen Fällen stabile Partikeldispersionen in Monomeren oder Polymerlösungen erzeugt, die in einem zweiten Schritt durch in-situ-Polymerisation oder Filmgießen in Komposite verarbeitet wurden. So konnten orangelumineszierende ZnS:Mn-Nanopartikel durch eine Cofällungsreaktion dargestellt und in eine stabile Dispersion in Acrylsäure überführt werden. Diese Dispersion konnte mit dem Tintenstrahldrucker als transparente Schicht gedruckt und durch Strahlungshärtung polymerisiert werden. Durch die Beimengung von MMA gelang erstmals die Herstellung transparenter ZnS:Mn-Nanokomposite durch die thermische Copolymerisation in Masse. Eine weitere Modifizierung mit Oleylamin ermöglichte die Stabilisierung der Partikel in Laurylacrylat und die Herstellung von ZnS:Mn/PLA-Nanokompositen durch Photopolymerisation der Dispersion. ZnS:Mn/PMMA-Nanokomposite und die isolierten Partikel weisen eine Fluoreszenzquantenausbeute von ca. 30 % auf. Dieser Wert übertrifft bisher publizierte Werte für ZnS:Mn-Nanopartikel deutlich. Blau-grün lumineszierende, kupferdotierte ZnS-Nanopartikel wurden in Wasser synthetisiert und durch einen Phasentransfer mit Octylamin hydrophob modifiziert. Mit den modifizierten ZnS:Cu-Nanopartikeln wurden PLA-Nanokomposite durch Redispergierung und in-situ-Polymerisation hergestellt. Des Weiteren konnten ZnS/PMMA-Filme durch ein Gießverfahren mit den hydrophobisierten ZnS:Mn- und ZnS:Cu-Partikeln hergestellt werden. Zinkoxid-Nanopartikel wurden in Ethanol synthetisiert. Die Partikel konnten als stabile Dispersion in BDMA überführt werden. Die Methode erlaubt die Kontrolle über Partikelgrößen im Bereich von 6-10 nm (DLS) und über die Partikelkonzentration bis zu 10 Gew%. Wachstumsprozesse, die für ZnO in Ethanol nur schwer zu kontrollieren sind, sind in BDMA vollständig eingestellt. Alternativ konnten die Zinkoxid-Nanopartikel durch die Zugabe von Oleylamin aus der ethanolischen Dispersion isoliert und gleichzeitig modifiziert werden. Die hydrophobisierten Partikel sind redispergierbar in unpolaren Monomeren. Mit dieser Methode wurden ZnO-Dispersionen in Laurylacrylat hergestellt. Dispersionen in BDMA und LA konnten photopolymerisiert werden. Die stabilen ZnO-Dispersionen in Acrylatmonomeren mit Konzentrationen bis 10 Gew% und daraus herstellbare, transparente Polymernanokomposite durch UV-Härtung sind als Neuheit zu bewerten. Zur Herstellung von YVO4:Eu/Polymer-Nanokompositen wurde eine Methode für die in-situ-Generierung der Nanopartikel in Methylmethacrylat entwickelt. Dazu wurden neuartige, inverse Mikroemulsionen mit MMA als Ölphase erzeugt. In den Mizellen entstanden durch eine Fällungsreaktion rot-emittierende YVO4:Eu- Nanopartikel. Die resultierende Partikeldispersion in MMA wurde polymerisert und so in Nanokomposite umgewandelt. Eine alternative Herstellungsmethode basiert auf der Synthese von citratstabilisierten YVO4:Eu-Nanopartikeln in Wasser und anschließendem Phasentransfer mit Octylamin. Man erhält ein hydrophobes Pulver, das in Laurylacrylat zu einer stabilen Mischung redispergiert werden kann. Die resultierenden Dispersionen sind photopolymerisierbar [169]. YVO4:Eu enthaltende Polymernanokomposite wurden bisher nicht beschrieben. Der Phasentransfer mit Alkylaminen wurde bereits für Gold-Nanopartikel demonstriert. Die Anwendung auf ZnS:Cu- und YVO4:Eu-Nanopartikel ist als Weiterentwicklung zu betrachten. Zur Partikelgrößenbestimmung an den Monomerdispersionen und Pulvern wurden dynamische Lichtstreuung, Kleinwinkelröntgenstreuung, Transmissionselektronenmikroskopie und Röntgendiffraktometrie eingesetzt. Alle genannten Nanokompositmaterialien konnten mit hoher Transparenz und geringer Trübung hergestellt werden, wie mit Transmissionsmessungen und Trübungsmessungen gezeigt wurde. Mit Transmissionselektronenmikroskopie an Ultramikrotomdünnschnitten konnte für ZnS/PMMA- und ZnO/PBDMA-Nanokomposite eine homogene Partikelverteilung im Polymer nachgewiesen werden. Durch die Variation des Partikelanteils wurden für die verschiedenen Systeme Konzentrationsgrenzen im Bereich von 3-10 Gew% zur Herstellung transparenter Komposite ermittelt. Die Nanokomposite weisen eine intensive Photolumineszenz auf. Blau- (ZnS:Cu), grün- (ZnO), orange- (ZnS:Mn) und rot- (YVO4:Eu) emittierende Nanokomposite wurden erhalten (Abbildung 75). Mit Fluoreszenzspektroskopie wurden die charakteristischen Anregungs- und Emissionsspektren der Kompositproben aufgenommen. Neben der Lumineszenz können die intensive UV-Absorption des ZnO, bzw. der hohe Brechungsindex des ZnS in Nanokompositen nutzbar gemacht werden. Die entwickelten Methoden beruhen auf einfachen, aufskalierbaren Prozessen und die verwendeten Edukte sind kommerziell erhältlich und ungiftig. Die entwickelten stabilen, druckbaren und strahlungshärtbaren Nanopartikeldispersionen in Acrylatund Methacrylatmonomeren sind daher auch für industrielle Anwendungen geeignet.

<p>Applikationen Chemical Force Feedback (CFF) för haptisk och visuell molekylrendering som har utvecklats på Linköpings Universitet för att testa nyttan av haptik för undervisning av protein-ligand dockning för molekylär livsvetenskap behöver förbättras på ett antal punkter för att bättre kunna fungera som ett komplett</p><p>molekylvisualiserings-verktyg. Tidigare projekt som utvecklat applikationen har fokuserat mestadels på den haptiska delen av programmet, vilket gjort att den visuella aspekten kommit efter. Det här examensarbetet har implementerat diverse ny funktionalitet både för att förbättra direkt kännbara aspekter av programmet, samt att lägga grunden för framtida utökningar.</p><p>De huvudsakliga förbättringarna som det här exjobbet resulterat i inkluderar: För det första, integration av DSSP-algoritmen i programmet har gjort information om sekundärstrukturen hos protein tillgänglig för visualisering. För det andra, ett nytt renderings-system tillåter rendering av semitransparenta ytor på ett korrekt sätt samtidigt som det skapar en program-struktur som bättre lämpar sig för implementation av nya molekylrepresentationer. För det tredje, en filvals-komponent som fungerar i den haptiska scengrafen har designats för att göra programmets användargränssnitt mer tillgängligt.</p> / <p>The Chemical Force Feedback (CFF) visual and haptic molecule rendering application, being developed at Linköping University to evaluate the use of haptics as a teaching tool for protein-ligand docking in molecular life science requires several additional features to function as a mature protein visualization tool. Previous developments of the application have focused mostly on the haptic part of the program, leaving the visual representation somewhat under-developed.</p><p>This thesis project has implemented various features in order to both improve the immediate functionality of the application as well as lay down the foundation for future additions.</p><p>The main contributions of this thesis include: Firstly, integration of the DSSP algorithm has provided the application with secondary structure information for the protein visualization. Secondly, a new rendering system has provided support for rendering transparent surfaces in a correct way as well as simplifying future addition of new visual representations of molecules. Thirdly, a file-selection dialog have been implemented using the haptic scenegraph as a step toward the goal of making the user interface of the application more user-friendly.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 261-272).

Kommunerna har som markägaren en viktig roll för att styra bebyggelseutvecklingen och locka aktörer att etablera sig i kommunen. Genom markanvisningar kan kommunen bjuda ut mark som ska exploaterats till intresserade byggherrar. Begreppet markanvisning är inte entydigt men innebär i huvudsak att en byggherre under en viss tid och under vissa villkor får en ensamrätt att förhandla med kommunen om att i ett senare skede förvärva ett område för bebyggande. Det har i tidigare studier påtalats brist på transparens och förutsägbarhet i den kommunalamarkanvisningsprocessen varför denna studie syftade till att utreda hur det ser ut idag vad gäller transparens och förutsägbarhet. För att få svar på frågeställningarna genomfördes en kvantitativ enkätundersökning som skickades ut till alla Sveriges 290 kommuner, dels för att kunna skapa en helhetsbild av nuläget och dels för att tidigare studier begränsat sig till större kommuner. Enkäten besvarades av 133 (46%) kommuner varav 62 (46%) angav att de använde markanvisningar och 70 (53%) att de inte gör det eller gör det vid enstaka tillfällen, en kommun svarade inte på frågan. Denna studie har endast gett en översiktlig bild av dagsläget och av resultatet framkom att rutinerna för att informera om och utvärdera markanvisningsprocessen skiljer sig åt och det finns fortfarande brister vad gäller transparens och förutsägbarhet, framförallt med avseende på motivering, uppföljning och utvärdering. Det fanns även skillnader mellan kommunerna och det framstår som att kommuner som genomfört fler markanvisningar i större utsträckning informera om, motivera, uppfölja och utvärdera markanvisningar. De flesta kommunerna ser även ut att uppleva att markanvisningssystemet och arbetet med markanvisningar fungerar ganska bra, men att det kan bli bättre. Slutligen bör nämnas att flertalet kommuner ser ut att befinna sig i en utvecklingsfas och det finns därav anledning att tro att markanvisningssystemet i framtiden kommer bli mer transparent och förutsägbart. / The municipalities as landowners have an important role to control the urban development and attract developers to establish themselves in the municipality. Municipalities can trough land allocation offer land for development to interested developers. The concept of land allocation is not clear but essentially means that a developer, during a certain time and under certain conditions has a right to negotiate with the municipality to subsequently acquire an area fordevelopment. There have been previous studies complaining of the lack of transparency and predictability in the municipal land allocation process. That’s why the purpose of this study is to investigate the situation of today in terms of transparency and predictability. To get answers to the questions a quantitative survey was conducted and it that was sent out to all 290 municipalities in Sweden, partly to create an overall picture of the current situation and partly because previous studies were limited to larger municipalities. 133 (46%) of the municipalities answered the questionnaire by witch 62 (46%) stated that they used the land allocation and 72 (53%) that they do not or do it occasionally, one municipal didn’t answer the question. This study only gives a general picture of the reality and the result showed that the routines to inform about and evaluate land allocation process differs and there are still shortcomings in terms of transparency and predictability, particularly with regard to motivation, follow-up and evaluation. There were also a differences between the municipalities and it appears that municipalities conducted more land allocation of teams to a greater extent inform, motivate, monitor and assess land allocation. The overall experience for the municipalities is that the land allocation system and work with land allocation works pretty well, but there are still areas for improvement. Most municipalities are in a development phases and there is hence reason to believe that the land allocation system in the future will become more transparent and predictable.

Cultural institutions that hold unique and valuable physical items only for restricted access untilnow are experiencing a change that demands them to take up the role of information providers aswell. International Dunhuang Project is a digitization project that has been taken as an example toinvestigate this phenomenon and more particularly issues of trustworthiness and how it can beestablished in the digital environment. Two concepts have been found to form the basis of itsassessment in the online world, authenticity and transparency. Authenticity is a concept borrowedfrom the existing practice of cultural institutions like museums and archives but transparency is anew demand that has come along with internet and the WWW. Through the examination ofcomponents of IDP's website like online documents, metadata and images along with interviewswith the producers of the project, an attempt has been made to understand how trustworthiness isperceived by the producers of the project and how they have implemented it on the material of theirwebsite. / Kulturinstitutioner som hittills bara gett endast begränsadtillgång till sina samlingar av unika och värdefulla fysiskaexemplar upplever nu en förändring som kräver att de ävenintar rollen som informationsleverantörer.Digitaliseringsprojektet International Dunhuang Projectanvänds som exempel i en undersökning om detta fenomen,i synnerhet kring frågor om trovärdighet och hur det kanfastställas i den digitala miljön. Två begrepp har visat sigligga till grund för bedömning av trovärdighet ionlinevärlden: autenticitet och genomsynlighet.Autenticitet är ett begrepp som lånats från befintliga praxishos kulturinstitutioner som museer och arkiv, mengenomsynlighet är ett nytt krav som tillkommit samtidigtsom internet och WWW. Genom undersökning av de olikaelement på IDP:s webbplats, t ex. online-dokument,metadata och bilder, tillsammans med intervjuer medprojektskaparna, har ett försök gjorts att förstå hurtrovärdighet uppfattas av projektskaparna och hur det harimplementerats på materialet på deras webbplats. / <p>Acknowledgments:I would like to thank the staff of the International Dunhuang Project, Ms. Susan Whitfield, Ms. VicSwift, Ms. Emma Goodliffe and Mr. Sam van Schaik for all the support they have offered meduring my stay at the British Library. This study would not have been completed without their helpand their insights. Also, I would like to thank my supervisor Mr. Mats Dahlstrom and Ms. ElenaMaceviciute, for their patience and the knowledge and tools they have provided me for therealization of this study. Moreover, Ms. Anna Brynolf who translated the abstract into Swedish.Lastly, Mr. Osama Mansour and Ms. Nina Hult for their comments which helped me to improve theshortcomings of my text.</p>

This dissertation develops three game-theoretic models in each of its three chapters to explore the strategic implications of transparency in the administrative state. Each model contains a similar set of three players: a political principal, an agent representing an agency or a bureaucrat, and an interested third party. The models consider the utility of transparency as a tool for mitigating regulatory capture, in which the third party influences the agent to serve its interest rather than the principal's. Chapter 1, "Transparency and Media Scrutiny in the Regulatory Process," models transparency as the volume of records that the media receives from the agent, which raises the likelihood of news alleging low costs to the interest group after the agent's proposal of lax regulation. Such reports cost these two players and may deter the group from capturing the agent. Among other things, the model describes costs due to distorted policy proposals and loss of information when greater transparency causes inaccurate reports to increase along with accurate ones. In Chapter 2, "Transparency and Power in Rulemaking," transparency is a requirement for the agent to disclose an item of information, such as his message from the regulated party or his signal about the cost of regulation. The agent can always disclose this information, but doing so may increase the principal's power to set regulation higher than he or the regulated party desires. A key result is that transparency is not necessary for the principal to know as much as the agent does but may discourage the generation of the message or signal. Chapter 3, "A Reverse Rationale for Reliance on Regulators," suggests that an agent can benefit a principal not by gathering information from an outsider that she cannot access, but by preventing her from obtaining or acting on this information. The agent benefits the principal when he induces additional effort in the outside party's information generation because he is more adversarial toward that party than she is. Mandatory disclosure of the agent's information is harmful because it effectively allows the outsider to communicate directly with the principal and provide lower quality information.

Sustainable actions in the footwear industry are growing in importance and sustainability communication has an important role for a changed shoe industry. The sustainability communication must be clear, credible and comparable as well as accessible in order to be communicated successfully.

This thesis examines the optimal role for public relations practitioners to play in managing the communications of disclosure situations. The contribution to knowledge in this work is the clarification of decision-making around organizational disclosures and the role public relations practitioners play in these sometimes difficult and sensitive situations. Decision making around the disclosure of organizational information has not been given much attention in the public relations and communications management literature. While other fields such as medicine and finance have researched the merits of disclosure and transparency for a number of years, the topic has evaded in depth academic examination in communications literature. Given the involvement of public relations practitioners in organizational disclosures, it is somewhat surprising that a model for managing the communications of these situations has not been proposed previously in published research. This thesis closes this gap by proposing a normative, theoretical model that is grounded in practice, and uses ethical decision-making, to assist communicators in developing strategies for managing disclosure events and improving the transparency of their organizations to the public. Using the Strauss and Corbin (1998) approach to Grounded Theory, this thesis explored the topic of disclosure with senior level Canadian public relations practitioners to elicit key themes prior to the development of an initial model which was then tested through further empirical research and user-group contact. The model presented in this thesis is intended to help public relations practitioners and their organizations’ senior management teams, structure their thoughts about disclosing information and develop a communication strategy through a step-wise process that works to find a balance between the needs of the organization and the information needs of stakeholders to make an informed decision about the situation. This thesis provides unique insights into practitioner dilemmas and challenges; highlights a number of important themes and conceptual issues that have not received attention to date; and offers a model for practice.