Nitrate pollution of ground and surface water can stem from the mismanagement and over-application of both inorganic and organic fertilizers. This results in the occurrence of non-point externalities, which infringe on the overall level of social welfare. Market based environmental policies, known as economic instruments, can be developed to curb the level of this non-point externality. Such policies directly affect the management decisions of agricultural producers, providing them with incentives to change their management practices. The overall objective of this study is to analyze an array of economic instruments which could feasibly curb water quality degradation resulting from the over-application and misuse of manure and inorganic fertilizers in agricultural production. The economic instruments are compared in terms of their relative effectiveness in decreasing nitrate water pollution and social damage. This thesis develops a three agent manure market model, wherein a vegetable producer and composter can purchase manure from a dairy producer or inorganic fertilizer from an exogenous fertilizer market. The production activities of each agent are modelled using real world production data. A non-linear programming technique is used. The imposition of a percentage manure tax was found to alter the vegetable producer’s derived demand for manure, and resulted in less manure being exchanged between the dairy and vegetable producers. The provisions of a percentage manure composting subsidy increased the quantity of manure demanded by the composter and decreased the amount of manure consumed by the vegetable and dairy producers. The imposition of an inorganic fertilizer tax increased the demands for manure fertilizer, as did the manure application limit. The effects on social damage are dependent on the leaching and surface run-off susceptibilities of each operation’s associated land base. The composting subsidy appeared to be the most efficient instrument for decreasing the overall level of social damage, when qualitatively analyzed. It induced decreases in the demand for manure by both the dairy and vegetable producers, while increasing the demand for manure of the composter. This results in an overall social benefit. There must be, however, financial justification for the implementation of such an instrument. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

Interest in golf and golf course developments has increased considerably in recent years. The reason for this growth is threefold: babyboomers are now making golf the game of choice; women, who in the past were only allowed to play at restricted times or even banned entirely, can now play at almost any time, and presently account for approximately 50 percent (once only 10 percent) of all new golfers; and young people are beginning to take a keen interest in the game. Today, about 200,000 golfers are playing on approximately 85 golfing facilities within the Lower Mainland. By 2011, it is estimated that 318,000 golfers will be playing on 119 golf courses. With a projected demand of an additional 34 golf courses over the next 15 years, locating suitable golf course development sites may be difficult, as local and provincial authorities are cautious about these 150 acre land uses that cause many land use and environmental conflicts. Golf course developers are commonly confronted with seven main concerns from the public and local government when a new development is proposed. The most heavily scrutinized of these concerns is the loss of agricultural land, the loss of wildlife habitat, and the amounts of chemicals used on golf courses. These are followed by increased water consumption levels, errant golf balls causing injury or damage, unwanted urban growth following these recreational developments, and lost recreational opportunities to non-golfers in the community. To varying degrees, these concerns can stall the golf course planning process, or even cause a municipality to reject an application. The golf course concerns were assessed in this thesis to discern how significant the issues are, and how planners and developers throughout North America are addressing them. The analysis is based on information gathered from public meetings, interviews, municipal planning reports, a general literature review and a case study. The result of the analysis is a set of planning guidelines designed to promote better golf courses. If the planning guidelines outlined in this thesis are followed, future and existing courses can become functional, environmentally sensitive and aesthetic land uses, characterized by: • sites that do not conflict with an Official Community Plan; • land fill sites reclaimed into a working recreational land use with native vegetation and wildlife; • chemical turf care management plans; • comprehensive construction plans to protect against erosion and plant damage; • protection zones for sensitive on-site habitats; • mixtures of native turf grass, plants, shrubs, and trees within the site; • nearby secondary sewage treatment plant to provide effluent for irrigation; • drainage systems that feed excess water into retention ponds for re-use; • designs that provide park and recreation space (where feasible) within the site; • proper setbacks or buffering spaces between the playing areas and nearby housing (where applicable); • multi-teed target-style golf course design layout for all skill levels. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This dissertation examined the effect of year-long study abroad program on the development of intercultural sensitivity among the Mainland Chinese high school students. The sample consisted of 50 study abroad participants and 50 students on home campus. The instrument Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) was employed to assess the intercultural sensitivity level of Mainland Chinese students before and after study abroad experience. The paired samples t-test results reveal that study abroad students did not make statistically significant gains in the overall intercultural sensitivity through participation in the year-long study abroad program. Although there were statistically significant differences in the posttest ethnorelative scales between study abroad students and students on the home campus, the study abroad students did not make significantly greater progress in their overall intercultural sensitivity between the pretest and posttest than the comparison group. The regression results indicated that the independent variable of total amount of previous intercultural experience significantly contributed to the development of intercultural sensitivity.On average, study abroad students participants were in the stage of Minimization as measured by IDI prior to study abroad and remained at the same stage by the conclusion of the study abroad experience. The findings imply that the study abroad program needs to provide support to increase students’ skills and sensitivity so that they can deal effectively with cultural differences.

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Taiwan¡¦s mango peasants and industries can gain from trade, especially by exporting high-quality mangos to high-income countries of the world ( like Japan ). But there are still some Taiwanese mango peasants who suffer from low bargaining power in a nearly perfectly competitive market and the downward trend of market prices. By interviewing peasants and middlemen about marketing channels of mangos of Yujing Township in Tainan County, I found the following aspects as crucial for a high-profit marketing of mango: agricultural technology, grading and packaging, quality control and logistical conditions as well as a better interaction between peasants, farmers¡¦ associations, enterprises and governmental institutions. Thus, I consider using markets segmentation as a good strategy in order to increase the competitiveness of agricultural products and lower nontariff trade barriers, therefore help raising peasants¡¦ bargaining power and solute the problem of downward trend of market prices. Markets segmentation is a term used in order to describe the segmentation of agricultural products according to their characteristics. The four aspects mentioned above make the markets segmentation efficient. Good interactions between peasants, farmers¡¦ associations, enterprises and governmental institutions can facilitate the operation in the marketing system and thus increase the value of agricultural products. This study also inspires China¡¦s peasants as well as makes China government the scholar who research problems about agriculture, rural areas and peasantry understand the problems of Mainland China¡¦s agricultural products marketing.

In an era of increasing competition, many organizations seek growth through expansion into foreign markets. And it means there is more and more growth in need of the organizations to transfer skills and develop organizational staff. The use of expatriate is an important human resource option which enables skill transfer and the development of new market. There are more interactions between Taiwan and Mainland China with the rapid growth economics in Mainland China in the recent years. It still has the difference in designing the expatriate compensation compared to the western theory due to the similar history background, culture and language. This study is to explore how the design of the expatriate compensation affects the willingness of expatriation in the case of the Taiwanese expatriates to Mainland China. It tends to understand the company and employee¡¦s view through the questionnaire in the design of the expatriate compensation. Furthermore, it will try to understand the future trend and development of the expatriate compensation from Taiwan to Mainland China.

Exchanges between Taiwan and China across the strait have become more frequent since Taiwan¡¦s abolishment of the martial law on July 16th, 1987, and deregulation of the restrictions on family visit to China on November 2nd the same year. The mainland Chinese people have longed for going to Taiwan to earn a living, and are engaged in illegal activities in Taiwan one after another. Consequently, many are involved in the violation of Article 18 of the Act Governing Relations Between The People Of The Taiwan Area And The Mainland Area, and hence detained. Detention is a transient measure that prevents the persons concerned from escaping from deportation by constraining their personal freedom, rather than a punitive measure. But due to the lack of a comprehensive mechanism for detention, detention centers are administered individually by different administrative agencies. In some occasions, extended detention is like taking the detained person into custody, and even without a definite term of detention. This poses a serious harm to Taiwan¡¦s human rights image. Therefore, in this essay, the author reviewed the regulations and mechanism, as well as the current practices and status of detention in the mainland Chinese people on the basis of the five frameworks of administrative laws: Basic Principle, Administrative Organization, Administrative Competence, Administrative Remedy and Administrative Supervision, and by means of literature review, comparative analysis and historical induction. Recommendations are also made for the existing regulations and mechanism, in an expectation to achieve more comprehensive detention administration.

Illegal migration is a common phenomenon around the world. It is most prevalent between regions and countries with relatively great difference in national income and economic activities. Taiwan has enjoyed economic prosperity since early years, and people are generally well-off. With a significantly higher living standard than mainland China, and consistently increasing cross-strait marriages, many people from mainland China who have no means to improve their economic condition in China, try to migrate to Taiwan illegally by means of ¡§fraudulent marriage¡¨ to solve their own economic problems. Public policies of a country are problem-oriented. Major objective of the public policies is to solve social problems. In order to prevent people from mainland China from engaging in illegal acts in Taiwan by means of fraudulent marriage, and hence endangering Taiwan society, the Taiwan government has instituted the interview policy. The interview policy is undeniably effective in deterring the mainland people from engaging in illegal acts in Taiwan by means of fraudulent marriage, but it has also created annoyance for the genuinely married couples across the straits. The author¡¦s motivation and aim of the study is to explore the possibility of relaxing the interview policy or bundling it with other auxiliary measures, so that both legal marriage and human rights could be protected. After understanding the system, regulations and result of the interview policy, the researcher then discussed the policy from the view-point of the policy stakeholders. Subjects of study are the policy stakeholders residing in Kaohsiung City. Samples were taken by non-probability sampling (purposive sampling) from the Taiwan spouses, mainland spouses, team members of the Kaohsiung Special Operation Brigade of National Immigration Agency actually executing the interview policy and the mainland citizens involved in fraudulent marriage who are staying in asylums, with whom interviews were conducted. The study found that the interview policy did have the effect of preventing mainland citizens from coming to Taiwan by means of fraudulent marriage when the present point of time (2011) was compared with 2003 when the policy was first launched. However, as time goes by, and as the cross-strait relationship unwinds, fraudulent marriage is no longer the only channel that ill-minded mainland people may come to Taiwan, as they have diversified channels now, such as business visit, traveling and the Taiwan individual travel scheme for mainland travelers, etc. Moreover, the interview policy only found 2 problematic cross-strait marriages out of 1000 cases in 2010, while the other 998 cases were normal cross-strait marriages, but still were affected and bothered by the interview policy. Therefore, whereas most interviewees agreed that the interview policy should be kept, they did believe that the policy should be appropriately relaxed. ¡§Immigrant management¡¨ or ¡§immigrant counseling¡¨ is an acceptable approach to strengthening the ¡§investigation¡¨ of mainland spouses. Therefore, for the interview policy, it is proposed in the study that: 1. existing interview policy for mainland spouses should be relaxed; and 2. visit and investigation of mainland spouses should be strengthened after they come to Taiwan.

Abstact Study on Labor Rights and Legal System in PRC.¡ÐA Learning from Taiwan. The issue about Labor rights in PRC is really important.In this thesis the author attempts to make a learning from Taiwan because the legal system in Taiwan is more complete. Key words: Labor Contract,Labor Law,Labor Rights,Legal system,Mainland China

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