Previous reports have demonstrated that running economy (RE), a measure of efficiency of locomotion, is superior in adults than in children; however, it is unclear how these differences come to be. Purpose: To identify the effect of maturity status, physical activity and various other anatomical and physiological factors on RE development in boys aged 8 to 16 years. Methods: Data were collected as part of the Saskatchewan Growth and Development Study (SGDS; 1964-1973). Using a pure longitudinal study design, anthropometric, maturity, physiological characteristics (treadmill run) and physical activity were assessed annually for nine consecutive years. Two-hundred and two eight year-old males were measured in 1965; by 1973, complete longitudinal data were available for 63 participants. During the treadmill run, a measure of submaximal oxygen consumption (VO2) was recorded, an index of RE. Four approaches of normalizing VO2 to body size were investigated. Maturity status was determined based upon chronological age at peak height velocity (PHV). Physical activity was assessed by two teacher ratings and two questionnaires. Results: Normalizing VO2 to body surface area was found to be the most appropriate body size adjustment. Submaximal VO2 (ml/m^2/min) at 9.6 km/h decreased with increasing chronological age (p<0.05). At common chronological age bands, late-maturing boys demonstrated superior RE than early-maturing boys from ages 10-14 years (p<0.05); average-maturing boys were also found to be more efficient than early-maturers at 12 and 13 years of age (p<0.05). Physical activity was not found to have any significant effect on the development of RE (p>0.05). A series of age-specific regression analyses identified body surface area and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) as variables which account for a significant portion of the variance in absolute VO2 (0.619<R^2<0.903); RER was not significant (p>0.05) at all chronological ages. Conclusion: Determining an appropriate approach for normalizing VO2 values is essential to allow for reliable investigation into factors other than size that affect RE. Maturity status was found to significantly affect RE development; however, only during the circumpubertal years. No effect of physical activity was found on RE development in boys 8-16 years. The relative influence of maturity status and RER are variable across different ages.

The economy development of Taiwan was facing the bottleneck in the1990s. The government set forth knowledge-based economy which involves high-tech industrial programs in order to break through the bottleneck. Computer networks were used to encourage economy, to accelerate production efficiency, and to enhance Taiwan¡¦s international competitiveness. The ratio of R&D expenses and GDP was 2.06% in the year of 2000, was 2.54% in 2004, and went higher and higher every year. Though the goal of 3.0% R&D expenses and GDP rate in the year of 2010 was still pursuing, the investment expenses in R&D produced great innovation effect index. And the exceptional achievement was within 10th place in the world. The results of this study indicate that if the ratio of R&D expenses and GDP. could be increased to above 3.5%, the technical innovation ability will be accelerated and elevated by the knowledge diffusion effect. Therefore, Taiwan¡¦s international competitiveness could be raised up to within 5th place in the world. A sound and integral constitutional government system creates political and economical stability. And this kind of stability is essential to economic prosperity. Economic growth depends upon the developing of knowledge-based economy. Thus, the non-economic turmoil and anarchy which are likely to hinder the development of knowledge-based economy in nowadays Taiwan should be eliminated completely.

none

Museums provide many functions, such as collection, preservation, research, exhibition, education, propagation, information, recreation and etc. However, the highlighting of museums varies with time. The functions of modern museums have gradually evolved from collection, preservation, exhibition in the past to the current recreation, education and entertainment. Compared with functions in the past, the quality of service offered by a modern museum becomes essential. There is ongoing interaction between the need of the public and the growth of the museum. Plain exhibition can no longer attract audience in the trend of recreation-oriented modern life style. A manager of a museum needs to recognize the need of the audience. A museum in itself is not any more an institution merely for passing on knowledge. A new feature has been attached to the museum. It becomes a place that accepts various opinions, and looks after the need of audience in aspects of emotion and sensation. In other words, modern museum uses its service as a stage and its exhibition as the props to let audience involved, and hence, personal experience emerged. The displayed collections are visible, the services are perceptible but the experiences are memorable. In this study, literature was analyzed to explore the establishment of a military museum from the viewpoint of experience economy. In the process, a different element ¡§how to create experience¡¨ was added into it. Starting from the perceptions of the audience and digging into their need, the study tried to understand audience¡¦s experiences of visiting a museum. Through this process, factors that impact the experiences of audience can be identified to offer strategies in providing audience experiences after the establishment of a military museum. Base on the results of the study, suggestions and future research directions were proposed to the government to facilitate planning of setting up a military museum.

No description available.

My research reviews the current literature on cuentapropismo (self-employment) in Havana and some of the existing theories of informality. My major goal is to see how well such theories explain the Havana case. Traditional approaches to understanding the informal economy do not fit Havana, which is distinct in terms of (1) social class structure, (2) social demography, (3) the relations between the formal and informal sectors, and (4) the relations between the informal economy and globalization. My research also examines the nature of informality and entrepreneurship and argues that the former supports the latter in three ways: overexploitation, invisibility and informal social network. These three elements apply to previous state employees who quit state jobs to enter the informal sector. In a context of neoliberal reforms and the consolidation of urbanization in Latin American countries, I conclude that it is necessary to theorize the experience of these informal entrepreneurs who previously worked in the formal sector and whose human capital and expectations separate them from earlier rural-origin migrants of the 1960s. / text

International political economy scholarship largely focuses on the motivations and determinants of FDI flows and their effects on economic wellbeing, stability and peace. An overlooked question, however, is the restrictions of inward FDI. Extant research widely regards national security and economic security as the justifications for FDI restriction. This is an oversight because there is a broad overlap in conceptualizations of national security and economic security. In this thesis I study the phenomenon of the use of the concept “critical industry” to justify FDI restrictions. I investigate eight cases of restricted FDI transactions occurred in China and the United States between 2005 and 2012, and the relevant institutions and practices of both countries. This study argues that the protection of critical industry is the key driver of inward FDI restrictions and that the security of critical industry is better understood to protect individual industries, defense-sensitive industries, critical infrastructures, and industries pertaining to regime-security. / Graduate

This thesis examines the nature of the transformations engendered under the impact of the demands of the state and European merchants' . capital within the colonial political economy of Northern Nigeria until 1939. It examines, in'particular, the effect 'of these transformations upon three groups: the peasantry, the merchant class and the aristocracy. It is placed within the current debate on the nature and impact of European capital, operating within an imperial framework, on the political economy of colonies. It seeks to analyse the dialectical effect of the intercourse of European merchants' capital with peasant producers, indigenous merchant and an indigenous ruling class incorporated within the colonial system of administration. Beginning with an examination of the basic pre-colonial economic structures (peasant and slave agriculture, long-distance and internal trade and manufacture) it analyses the immediate effects of the subordination of the pre-colonial state structure under the colonial state, and of the colonial states' policies towards land;~labour and taxation. It then examines peasant involvement in the increased'. production of export commodities, and the role of European, Levantine and African merchant capital in the trade. It then examines the effect of this involvement on the structUre of peasant relations of production, and finally examines the implications of intensified export commodity production within the wider context of a maturing colonial economy. It concludes that the twin demands to ensure initial political control and financial solvency by the state combined with the existence of a form of capital that intensified pettycommo~ ity production to create in Northern Nigeria a state system centred around:a class of non-producers, committed to a controlled, guided change, dependent upon surplus from a peasantry, and class relations that aimed at perpet~ating the political subordination of the peasantry. Material for the thesis vas gathered from actual sources in the' National Archives,'Kaduna, Nigeria, Public Records Office in London, and from published boQks and journals from the University of Sussex, England.

This study examines public housing authority employees' perceptions of readiness, climate and process of change and employee status. Sixty-six (66) survey participants were selected for this study utilizing convenience sampling. The survey participants were current public housing authority employees who underwent organizational change. The survey in this study, Organizational Change Questionnaire- Climate of Change, Processes and Readiness (OCQ-CPR), utilized a four-point continuum Likert scale. Frequency distribution, cross tabulations and the statistical test of chi-square were used to analyze the relationship between the variables. The findings of the study indicated that there was no statistical relationship between the variables.

No description available.