This paper introduces a dynamic model to illustrate how the self, the work, and the environment interactively influence the experience of work meaningfulness during the employment period. While individuals might enter an organization with intent to improve or protect others¡¦ well-being, their perceived degree of work meaningfulness might be strengthened or weakened within jobs. Other factors from their work and the environment could come into play. Specifically, the proposed model presents how the interplay between prosocial motivation, perceived task significance, and perceived external prestige of an organization affect the experienced meaningfulness of work jointly. This paper tests the model by surveying employees from the high-tech sector and the police sector using the questionnaire method. The results show that individuals who have prosocial motivation indeed experience a sense of work meaningfulness initially. Even when individuals are prosocially motivated, the perceived external prestige of their organizations positively affects their experience in meaningfulness of work. Furthermore, the perceived level of task significance of one¡¦s work overpowers the existing prosocial motivation when it comes to altering the perception of work meaningfulness. The findings indicate that factors from different dimensions could alter the experienced meaningfulness of work together, and the relation between prosocial motivation and work meaningfulness is dynamic.

In this thesis, with external cavity semiconductor laser, a high lateral resolution thickness measurement is proposed and demonstrated. The approach is typical an intra-cavity measurement of focused cell thickness by wavelength tuning of an external cavity laser diode. In addition, using blue light of 406nm as laser diode, higher lateral resolution is also observed. Using the proposed thickness method, the lateral resolution and longitudinal resolution have been demonstrated with 20£gm and 0.15£gm, respectively. We also discuss the feasibility of £gm scaled lateral resolution through improvement of laser diode, such as M^2~1.

Segmental post-tensioned (PT) bridges are major structures that carry significant traffic. Recent investigations of these bridges have identified voids in their ducts. and some of these exposed strands at these void locations are undergoing corrosion. The corrosion of strands may lead to the failure of tendons. As such, an effective inspection process for identifying these voids is needed. From a literature review, several non-destructive testing (NDT) methods are compared for applicability in inspecting voids in external tendons. The impact echo (IE), ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), and sounding inspection methods were selected and assessed for identifying voids in preliminary test setup. The sounding inspection method is further assessed for its effectiveness in identifying voids in a full-scale, external tendon system. The results indicate that the sounding inspection slightly underestimates the size of the voids. However, the inspected size and locations of voids have a close correlation with actual voids in ducts. Thus, the sounding inspection can be an effective tool for identifying voids because of its easy application in the field. Recently, the investigated failures of segmental post-tensioned (PT) bridges called attention to the rehabilitation and mitigation methods of voided ducts in PT structures. Although controversy exists on how to best protect PT tendons from corrosion, filling these voids with grout may be one option. An optimized grouting procedure for repairing these voids is needed how best to protect the strands from corrosive environments. This research investigates three grouting methods for efficiently repairing the voids in PT duct systems. These methods are (1) vacuum grouting (VG), (2) pressure grouting (PG), and (3) pressure-vacuum grouting (PVG). Each method is being evaluated for filling capability, filling performance, and economic feasibility. Also, three different pre-packaged grouts for repair are assessed in this research to propose the most suitable material for repairing voided PT ducts. The results indicate that the PG and PVG methods are more constructible and likely more economical than the VG method. However, the PVG and VG methods seem to be more effective than the PG method in filling the voids. As a result of these tests, the PVG method is recommended for filling voids in tendons. The results also show that C-1 and C-2 grouts have better filling capability than C-3 grout. Although experimental tests using prototype specimens of external PT tendons are performed to propose an effective repair grouting method and material, the experimental conditions cannot cover all voids types, duct types, and other effects of repair grouting methods in the field. Thus, the grout flow in voided ducts is predicted using a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program. The simulation of the flow is challenging due to the complicated geometry of voided ducts, but the simplified model in this research shows close correlations with experimental results. Thus, various parameters of repair methods and materials are assessed in this research, and the PVG method with grouts having low viscosity exhibited the best performance. If it is determined that filling voids with grout is appropriate and prevents future corrosion, it is recommended that voids in the field be filled using the PVG method with grouts exhibiting low viscosities.

Mesenchymal stem cells are more and more widely used in tissue engineering due to their pluripotency and no relative ethical problems. Traditional characterization techniques to detect mesenchymal stem cell states include flow cytometry, gene expressing profiling and immunohistochemistry. However, these methods can only provide transient and low level information from current RNA or protein levels about mesenchymal stem cells, which may cause problems when predicting the possible downstream lineages they will commit into. We have developed chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-based epigenetic technique to detect mesenchymal stem cell states. For the systems we tested, this epigenetic assessor successfully characterized cell state changes and gave similar results obtained from gene expression profiling or protein expression assay. This epigenetic technique can provide information about mesenchymal stem cells states from a more fundamental chromatin level, which is promising for predicting future lineages from current states.

The width of an ultra high-power laser diode is greater than 50 £gm and more than 20 times of low-power laser diode.The core diameter of Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier fiber (EDFA) is 4~6 £gm and it is a single-mode fiber (SMF).However¡Athe ultra high-power laser diode is multi-mode laser. Therefore¡Athe mismatch between high-power laser and SMF resulting in low coupling efficiency. We improve coupling efficiency by using a wedge-shaped graded-index fiber (GIF) tip spliced to a SMF then fused a fiber bragg grating (FBG) to form an external cavity laser. The GIF is a focusing action like a graded-index fiber. From near-field pattern (NFP)¡Awe find the best GIF length is 400 £gm. The coupling efficiency between ultra high-power laser diode and wedge-shape lensed fiber is only 5% .

The small and medium enterprises have been recognized as the main factor for the economic miracle in Taiwan. With fading ¡§dot com¡¨ companies and global economic depression, Taiwan academia, industry and government authorities have worked hard to propose numerous suggestions as well as policies, hopefully to build the competitive strength on the international trade market. High-tech industry is expected as the most significant part in the twenty-first century where knowledge and technology play the essential roles. Such industry also pertains high risks because of the fast changing technology. Hence, the innovation spirits of enterprises that continuously dedicate to technological R&D enable them to react the dynamic market efficiently. This study proposed several influent factors for enterprise performance. Three independent variables are enterpreneurship, technology strategy, and external network: the enterpreneurship includes innovativeness, risk taking, and proactiveness; the technology strategy refers to pioneering, internal R&D, external sources, patenting, and forecasting; in addition, the external network means the external linkages of the enterprise, such as consultants, alliances, association, financial institution, research institution, and government. Performance was measured by subjective perception containin sale growth, market share, ROI, and profitability. This study adopts questionnaires to collect data. Eight hundred and forty-four questionnaires were mailed to CEOs of Computer manufacture companies and IC manufacture companies in Taiwan. After one month, eighty-two responses were received. After statistic analysis, the results are: (1) those firms that stood for more than ten years or have more than 200 employees showed better performance; (2) several factors showed significant positive correlation with performance, including product innovativeness & risk taking in the entrepreneurship, pioneering & external sources in technology strategy, and research institution & government, alliances, and association in external network; (3) entrepreneurship, technology strategy, and external network were mutually positive correlated. Finally, based on the research findings, this study proposes conclusions and suggestions for managers or entrepreneurs in the directions of strategy planning and decision-making. Keywords¡GEnterpreneurship, Technology Strategy, External Network, Performance, High-tech Firms

In this dissertation, I study international financial crises. For this purpose, I build two models. In the first model, I focus on financial crises in developing, large open economies where foreign debt with various maturities and issue dates is available. The objective is to measure the vulnerability of the domestic financial system to domestically triggered bank runs and externally triggered sudden stops. The main contribution of this model is that both types of crises are treated as rational responses of domestic depositors and international creditors. Such vulnerability measures are linked to fundamentals and equilibrium term structure of foreign debt. Banks’ vulnerability to runs increases if they hold a relatively shorter term debt. Also, a larger cost of liquidating the long-term investment before maturity makes the banks more fragile. In the next step, given a domestic banking crisis, I allow international creditors to decide whether they want to stop lending to domestic banks (in which case a “sudden stop” takes place) or not. A sudden stop is more likely if (i) creditors highly discount future consumption, (ii) creditors’ current income is small relative to their future income, and (iii) the cost of liquidating the long-term investment before maturity is small. In the second model, I investigate the merits of alternative monetary policies with respect to financial fragility. In this monetary model of an explicit financial system, I motivate the demand for two fiat currencies by spatial separation and limited communication of agents. There is a domestic and a foreign currency freely traded without restrictions. I analyze the policy of a constant growth rate of domestic money supply with a floating exchange rate regime. Both currencies are held in positive amounts at the steady-state only if the growth rate of domestic money supply is equal to the world inflation rate (WIR). If the former rate is larger than the WIR, domestic currency is not held at the steady-state. Also, total real money balances held is negatively related with WIR. Finally, monetary policy in the form of a constant growth rate of domestic money supply is neutral with respect to welfare.

This thesis use laser diode, lens, grating, and mirrors to composite the external cavity system to retrieve the thickness of the liquid crystal and its characteristics. This way is different to the traditional way of measure. It has good accuracy on the vertical resolution and the vertical resolution can reach to 0.3£gm. At the same time, it can develop the high quality of horizontal resolution. On the basis of the correlation between the cavity length and the wavelength of the semiconductor laser, the system is capable of developing high horizontal resolution of accurate liquid crystal measurements. The horizontal resolution can reach to 40£gm. Furthermore, by adding bias on liquid crystal through this system, it expanded more understandings on the influences of bias and induced electric field of the electrodes to the tilting angle of the liquid crystal.

This study employs tourism model as research framework to examine the of tourism development in Penghu. The study involves three objectives. The first objective is to assess the influence of the external environment (including political, economical, natural, technological, social, and culture aspect) on the tourism development of Penghu. The second objective is to discuss the government policies that facilitate the tourism development of Penghu and tourism investment with gaming industry from foreign countries. Due to the controversial nature of gaming industry, this study examines both its positive and negative impact for developing appropriate gaming managerial policy. The third objective is to develop Penghu¡¦s tourism marketing strategies by integrating related tourism services, activities and destinations for enhancing the tourism quality of Penghu. The integration will support Penghu to develop marketing strategies for proper utilize the tourism resources of Penghu. In order to achieve the above objectives, the study uses tourism model and focus group which includes tourism related government officials, public representatives, civil groups, tourism practitioners and scholars in Penghu to analyze the external environment, government¡¦s tourism policy and Penghu¡¦s tourism marketing strategies. The result of the study can be the references for the tourism development of Penghu. The findings of the study are as following: (1) political, economical, natural, technological, social, and culture external environment all possess strong influence to the tourism development of Penghu. Therefore, government officials and tourism practitioners should consider the influence of external environment for making tourism policies or marketing strategies. (2) Central government should coordinate with local government for effectively making and implementing tourism policy. (3) Tourism management and marketing strategy are critical to the success of tourism development of Penghu. The integration of tourism related services, activities and destinations can effectively utilize Penghu¡¦s tourism resources. At last, based on external environment, government policies, and tourism industry, this study develops expected tourism policies and marketing strategies for enhancing the tourism development of Penghu.

The increasing number of graduates from higher education program has arouse the discussion of its effect on Taiwan workers¡¦ competency and whether such booming production has advantages for graduates¡¦ first job search. Even though a large aggregation of literatures has been published and includes such vocational activities into turnover theories, social cognitive theory and so on, there has not been a explicate framework of combining internal and external factors with job search outcome. The study has achieved illustrate 2009 graduates¡¦ from department of business administrative perception of how the difference of their degrees interact with internal factor (self-efficacy), external factor (economic condition) and job search outcome (employment opportunity index). By adding valid scales into the existing job search framework, the study is able to conclude the discrepancy between master degree graduates and bachelor degree graduates scoring on different scales as well as the overall discrepancy the graduates¡¦ perception have against the actual facts in the contemporary job market. In sum, the findings in this study are as the following: 1. There are positive relationships between: education attainment vs. self-efficacy, level of external factor resistance, EOI; self-efficacy vs. level of external factor resistance, EOI; level of external factor resistance vs. EOI. 2. Master graduates have higher occupational self-efficacy, level of external factor resistance and EOI than the bachelor graduates. 3. Master graduates are likely to make overestimation on the amount of their first monthly payment and underestimation on the duration needed for their first job search.