Abstract This essay is a study on "the influence that the stock options of the salary incentive pay system have on the management level of Chinese mainland insurance industry". this study is divided into four parts : first , introduce the theory that influence the setting of the salary incentive pay system ; second, analyses the common-used incentive pay system in Chinese mainland at present and its developmental tendency ; third , introduce the basic information of Taiwan's insurance industry brought into mainland . We hope that the study on mainland's insurance industry will contribute to the Taiwan' study in the field of mainland' insurance market. Fourth, analyze how Taiwan's insurance industry establish salary incentive pay system that meet the market demands in their development in mainland . The stereotype of the industrialist, the collected data, the careful analysis and the case that was picked out, can be referred to by those who want to develop on the mainland market. From this study, we find that there are active effects of thestock options system from the salary incentive pay system, whichcannot be found in the mainland's intermediate insurance industry. The cause can be concluded into two species: individual factor, externalfactor. Each conclusion has three items. So there are totally sixitems. The conclusions suggest that, mainland's intermediate insurance companies' planning on the management's salary incentive pay system is faced with many influence factors now. Althongh there are some limitations of the annual salary, such as the management behaviors Short-termism, the frequently-liquid of the managements' talents, the shortage of management talents, still, the effects are more active than other incentive pay system forms such as manager acquisition, insurance plan and retire plan, golden parachutes and EVA, except stock rights and options. The key words : the salary incentive pay system; management; Chinese mainland insurance market; stock options; golden parachutes

This study reviewed current Taiwan abroad-employed related regulations, administrations and fishery labor globalization with related researches so as to further probe the abroad-employed fishery workers in Tong-Kang Area of Pingtung County. Due to the unique labor import mechanism and special political situation between Taiwan and China, mainland Chinese and foreign abroad-employed fishmen have very different ways of restrictions on border crossing, working restriction and life and culture adoption. This study conducts face-to-face interviewed with government officials, union staffs, ship owners, and fishery workers to clarify the role, status of abroad-employed institution and to explore and discuss the possible future amendment for policy makers. After analyzing the interviews of the 12 cases, there are 8 main findings as follows: 1. the abroad-employed fishery play a strong and positive role on fishery labor supplement; 2.ship owners and workers expect working permits when ashore; 3.the difference and coexist of abroad and domestic employing policy, lower the number of local fishery workers and obstruct the development; 4. the institutional difference and coexist of abroad and domestic employing contribute to management chaos; 5. future policy amendment is inevitable; 6. Jumping ship cases (fishermen escape from legitimate employer) might be caused by malfunction of management and life adaption; 7. Compulsive confinement for mainland Chinese fish men need to be renamed for humanistic reasons; 8. The government ought to improve and supervise the operation of confinement centers. Based on the findings, we suggest that 1. Compulsive confinement policy and the ban on working seem adjustable; 2. Giving working permit and individual life consulting could help improve working efficiency; 3. The integration of competent authorities including fishery, immigration, quarantine, the police, mainland affairs council, will benefit the continuity of Fishery workers¡¦ abroad-employing policy.

In recent years, there are an increasing number of Taiwan-based enterprises building up their factories in Mainland China, possibly due to the following reasons: low manufacture cost, plentiful human resource, inexpensive land and large market. Compared to other inexpensive (or even cheapter) countries, In addition, China remains entrepreneurs¡¦ favorite destination when considering moving out factories because of the short geographic distance as well as the culture similarity. However, recent macroeconomic control, the request of labor contract and the new tax law enforced by China government dramatically increase the cost of labor, causing more risk in investment. Take stainless steel industry as an example. There is a need to exercise good competitive strategies, with the aid of information systems, so as to stay competitive in the global economy. This research, through case studies, identifies several strategies that are essential to the profitable establishment of factories in mainland China and a number of factors for successfully deploying information systems.

Metaphor research has become widespread. However, students’ understanding of metaphor in informational text has received little study. With increased use of informational trade books in the classroom, research in this area is needed. Fifty-five grade six students with Canadian English as their first language participated in the study. Their understanding of metaphors in excerpts from three recently published informational trade books was examined by the use of the reading think aloud technique and multiple choice activities. One think aloud was completed by each student in both individual and dyadic conditions. Multiple choice activities were completed individually after reading, but with the text available. The think-aloud protocols were examined using specific-trait analysis, holistic scoring, and miscue analysis. The multiple choice activities were scored against anticipated adult-like understanding and the results were subjected to standard statistical tests. Level of understanding of metaphors varied widely among students, with the overall average being about 65%. Contrary to prediction, understanding was significantly higher in the individual condition compared to the dyadic condition. Although part of this difference could be attributed to differences in passage difficulty, the anticipated scaffolding effect of reading with a partner was not found. The reading think aloud was a rich source of information about both the meaning students constructed and the meaning-construction process. The study suggested that the think aloud could be used in the classroom as an effective learning device, particularly in that it allowed less-capable readers to participate as equal partners in what might otherwise have been a frustrating reading task. Overall, there emerged a picture of students at various points along the path to full adult mastery of metaphor, with some students already demonstrating an adult level of understanding. Level of text understanding was consistent with level of metaphor understanding. The only metaphor-type effect identified was for metaphors with copula-verb syntactic-frame structure. Abstractness of the words in the metaphors did not affect meaning construction; however, conventionality of the metaphorical expressions did influence understanding.

Awareness of the spread of invasive plant species has grown, but quantitative measures of their impacts are lacking. This study analyses the impact of Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) on breeding bird diversity finding a significant difference in bird diversity between “natural” and R. armeniacus-dominated understoreys. More bird species were noted in habitats with greater structural and compositional diversity. Simpson’s richness/evenness index was significantly different between habitat types for Stanley Park and Maplewood Flats (P<0.05) but not Jericho Park (P>0.05), likely due to lower overall bird diversity at Jericho Park and lack of overstorey trees at R. armeniacus thickets. When R. armeniacus is the dominant understorey shrub in a forested setting it has the greatest negative impact on breeding bird diversity.

The extent of influence of monetary policies on housing prices in the Greater China region is examined in this study using data from 2005-2015. Using vector autoregression, the effects of housing indices, interest rates, money supply as well as stock market index are accessed. Results suggest that monetary policies do in fact influence housing market trends in Greater China. Furthermore, the extent of influence on Mainland China on the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets is also tested. Results imply a greater co-integration between the Mainland and Hong Kong market than that between Mainland and Taiwan. The effect of exchange rate is deemed as insignificant. Housing policies set by national and local governments show to be less influential than predicted. Lastly, granger causality is not present between the different markets within this study.

The recent move to in situ conservation management world-wide is supported by, and stems from the 1992 International Convention on Biological Diversity. The Department of Conservation - charged with the conservation of New Zealand's natural resources - has directed efforts towards the restoration of natural processes as an avenue to halt local biodiversity decline. Ecosystem, habitat, and nature restoration programmes such as the Boundary Stream Mainland Island Project (BSMIP) represent the forefront of conservation management, combining intensive multi-species pest control, with broad-scale hierarchical monitoring programmes. Monitoring programmes confer information that is intended to support decision-making and management by the reduction of uncertainty, or by increasing knowledge. The validity of monitoring programmes depends on three key parts; the guiding objectives, biological relevance, and statistical reliability. Seven major long-term monitoring programmes established at the BSMIP were evaluated according to the above criteria. All monitoring programmes had appropriate guiding objectives, and were biologically relevant (outcome and result monitoring were balanced respective to each other and to the restoration intervention and efforts at BSMIP). The statistical reliability of the programmes was appraised with the use of the Computer programme MONITOR, which provided a calculated value for the statistical power of the monitoring programmes. All monitoring programmes except two (Lizard monitoring: which was initially designed as a short-term species survey, and Mustelid monitoring: which would be a good candidate for a double sampling methodology) had a robust design (evaluated using the actual initial data, and conservative criteria for the detection of population change). The monitoring programmes that did achieve a level of statistical robustness, provided a statistical power of 0.8 ( 80%) within appropriate timeframes for restoration of ecosystem processes (e.g. the timeframe for detection of a 10% change in the abundance, density, relative index, etc of the Result monitoring programmes: Rodents = three years, Possums = six years, and Outcome monitoring programmes: Weta = five years, Ground Invertebrates = four years, Birds (species nos.) = four years, Vegetation (Species, and sapling nos.) = 15 years). The guiding objectives for monitoring programmes must have clear, specific, measurable, and achievable goals, in-order to identify appropriate variables, in both spatial and temporal scales. The biological relevance or "linkage" between monitored groups is important and must be at least outlined, for monitoring programmes to be able to identify potential cause and effect. Statistical reliability (the balance between statistical significance, statistical power, and the timeframe for a conclusive result to be determined) is important, as it is the key method of detecting change. Statistical power can improve the design and efficiency of monitoring programmes and clarify research results. Power analysis has become readily available for researchers and managers with the development of computer programmes specifically designed for this task.

Predation is the highest cause of mortality for birds and can place intense selection pressures on their behavioural traits. A number of studies have shown that some animals have innate predator recognition, while others which are predator-naïve have been unable to adapt to the introduction of exotic predators. For my thesis, I firstly studied how eight species of introduced and native birds respond to model predators at their nests. This enabled me to determine whether the native birds have been able to adapt to introduced mammalian predators and have developed recognition of them being a threat. In most species, the reaction to the stoat (Mustela erminea) (an introduced predator) was similar to that of a model morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae) (a native predator). This suggests these species can successfully recognise introduced mammals as a risk. It also allowed me to test whether recently introduced birds have any innate recognition of snakes, which are a significant nest predator in their native ranges but do not exist in New Zealand. I found that introduced birds did not appear to have any recognition of snakes as being a threat. These losses and gains of recognition may have been caused by evolutionary changes or they may be influenced by learning and experience. Secondly, I examined how South Island robins (Petroica australis) on a predator-free island responded to predator models and compared this to the responses of robins on the mainland (where they co-occur with mammalian predators). The island birds were assumed to show the ancestral reactions to mammalian predators, while any differences in response shown by the mainland robins would indicate they had acquired these behaviours in response to increased predation risk. I found that the island robins did not appear to recognise or react to a taxidermic mount of a stoat while mainland robins did respond to the stoat, confirming that at least some native birds can develop recognition of novel predators. Finally, I compared the personalities of South Island robins on a predator-free island and on the mainland (where mammalian predators are present). I tested where individuals placed on the ‘bold-shy’ continuum by observing their willingness and speed to approach a risky situation in order to collect food. Studies have shown that average personality between populations can differ where predation risk differs. I found that the island robins were on average bolder than mainland robins. They came nearer to the observer and were faster to approach and remove a food item, while mainland robins were less likely to approach, and those that did approach took a longer time. It is likely that these differences were due to selection pressures by mammalian predators favouring shy individuals on the mainland while other pressures such as interspecific competition favours bold individuals on the island. Personality has been shown to be genetic and heritable, however, learning and experience cannot be ruled out and may also play a part in influencing how personality is expressed. Together, my results support the importance of historical and ontogenetic factors in influencing how predator recognition and personality traits are expressed.

Thesis (M. For. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2003. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-137). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Groundwater is a truly hidden resource that millions of lives depend on for survival. The importance of this resource cannot be accentuated enough, yet for generations it has been abused and misused. Groundwater forms an integral part of the hydrological cycle and, therefore, holistic management, conservation, protection and efficient use is of paramount importance. In the past, regulation of this resource at international, regional and national level was minimal. Little progress has been made to accommodate groundwater in international and regional legal instruments.