This study explored the emerging Self-Imposed Activity Limitation (SIAL) theory among community dwelling elders. This theory was examined using the proposed Aging Well Conceptual model which was guided by Baltes' Selection, Optimization with Compensation model, Markus and Nurius' Envisioned Possible Selves theory, Kuypers and Bengtson's Social Breakdown Syndrome model, Bandura's Self-Efficacy theory, and Rotter's Locus of Control theory. The objectives of this study were to explore the relationships among multiple variables in a hierarchical model and to examine the explanatory power of the SIAL variables in predicting elders' well-being.A correlational descriptive design with a causal modeling approach was used employing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques. The Aging Well model was tested through a secondary analysis of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) database selecting respondents aged 65-74 years.Two research questions guided this study. Research question one, how well does the Aging Well model fit with empirical sample data, was explored. The Aging Well model statistically approximated the MIDUS data after theoretical and statistical modifications and explained 76% of the variance of elder's well-being. The mediating effects of SIAL variables were determined by nested alternative model testing. Research question two, are the proposition statements in the Aging Well model valid, and was demonstrated empirically by the expected patterns of correlation and covariance among most of the variables in the Aging Well model.SIAL as a composite factor had a large positive effect on elder's well-being. Elders' perceived constraints and perception of aging had no direct effect on well-being. The influences of these two factors on well-being were mediated by a common factor, SIAL. These findings supported the emerging SIAL theory by suggesting that the optimal use of SIAL would lead to adaptive outcomes promoting elders' well-being. In addition, SIAL mediated the effects of elders' sense of control and perception of aging on well-being. The full range of SIAL could not be examined due to limitations inherent in secondary data analysis.

For the last three decades, semiconductor industry has played an important role in Taiwan economics. The analysis of Taiwan electronics industry has been focused on most channels & logistics. Due to previous working experiences, we will like to do a research of international companies’ sales incentive program in terms of value, culture, core competence, and sales strategy. As we know that R&D, marketing, sales, production, finance, human resource all play the important role in a company. The sales revenue, sales growth, and sales margin play even more decisive role on the stock price. It is very important for company to drive sale team with the incentive, compensation strategy, entrepreneurial culture, and strategy will be discussed in the following chapters. This study will cover a small portion of the criteria to evaluate company’s sales performance which provide a better guidance for my future sales strategy to capture some existing companies’ business models and phenomena.

職業災害補償制度乃保護勞工之生命財產安全，而非以故意或過失為補償構成要件，制度目標為職災預防、勞工傷病補償以及災後勞工重建。各國政府長久致力於建構一套完善的職業災害補償制度，保護因工作災害導致傷病之勞工，補償損失並提供醫療支援，協助重返工作崗位維持穩定生活。澳大利亞為聯邦制國家，職業災害補償制度採地方分權主義，由各省立法管轄制度運作，聯邦政府的角色則為全國政策之指導與調和。職災補償以強制保險課以雇主保護照顧責任，勞動者依地區、身份之別，各別適用澳洲境內十種職業災害補償制度。地方政府依該省職災補償相關法規，設立職災補償局管理制度運作，職災保險則由政府或民營保險業者辦理，故澳洲各省間形成彼此獨立之職災補償體系。 隨著職災補償制度發展與勞動市場環境變遷，各省職業災害補償制度的異質性，逐漸影響制度辦理之成效，造成法律適用難度增加、勞工與雇主各省間差別對待、行政錯誤與詐領風險提高等問題。而新興工作型態勞動人數的增加亦衝擊制度管理，使得傳統定義下的適用對象，有擴增範圍及統一各省定義之必要。因此，未來澳洲職災補償制度之發展，聯邦政府應試圖以縮小省分間之差異性為政策方向，職災補償制度仍由地方管轄，惟應漸進式統一職災補償法令有關基本之定義範圍、福利架構、職災重建協助措施等，使全國各省的勞工職災補償制度具有整體一致性規範。此外，澳洲職災補償與安全衛生預防、災後重建三者間制度連結之特色，可作為台灣加強職災預防、重建之參考，包括職災保護法令單獨立法、宣導傷病管理計畫、相關機構整併與功能強化，健全我國職災補償事前防治機制及事後補償重建之完整性。 / The fundamental aim of workers’ compensation system is to protect labors’ right to survive in the Constitution, so it is not based on someone’s negligent and fault. Workers’ compensation system is set for preventing from occupational injury, compensating labors’ loss, and rehabilitation after the injuries. The worker’s compensation system of Commonwealth of Australia is governed by the territories while the federal government of Australia is in charge of making national policy and harmonizing state’s system. Workers’ compensation system requires most employers to insure against their statutory liability to compensate employees for work-related injury or illness. According to the district and state, there are ten workers’ compensation schemes in Australia. Workers’ compensation funding operates by government and authorized private insurance. Each state has its own workers’ compensation laws, and operates workers’ compensation arrangements independently. As each jurisdiction has developed its own arrangements and transition of labor market environments, this has resulted in numerous inconsistencies and problems in the each jurisdiction’s include application of workers’ compensation laws, inequities in treatment to workers and employers, and increase risk of errors and fraud etc. The increase of precarious workers also impacts the system, so it is necessary to enhance and definite coverage of workers’ compensation scheme. Consequently, workers’ compensation system in Australia would be narrow inconsistencies of territories. The system is still governed by each of territory, however. There should be harmonized all of the definition, benefit structure, rehabilitation program etc, so that workers’ compensation system in Australia has a united rule to follow. Besides, the advantage of arrangement in Australia that integrates compensation with prevention and rehabilitation can be a model for Taiwan to enhance function of prevention and rehabilitation. Other suggestions are like integrating the laws related to occupational injury and compensation, encouraging injury management plan and enforcing role of insurer to fulfill function of prevention and rehabilitation of workers’ compensation in Taiwan.

This thesis presents the results for the temperature variation of the Differential Group Delay (DGD) measurements of a Dispersion Compensation Module (DCM) and interprets the results with a theoretical DGD model based on glass viscoelastic properties and estimated values of some of glass parameters. The results of our analysis demonstrate the existence of long birefringence relaxation times on the order of many hours in response to temperature changes. These results could be of significance in interpreting the behavior of optical fiber systems.

Currently, automotive batteries use intercalation cathodes such as lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) which provide high levels of safety while sacrificing cell voltage and therefore energy density. Lithium transition metal oxide (LiMO2) batteries achieve higher cell voltages at the risk of releasing oxygen gas during charging, which can lead to ignition of the liquid electrolyte. To achieve both safety and high energy density, oxide cathodes must be well characterized under operating conditions. In any intercalation cathode material, the loss of positive lithium ions during charge must be balanced by the loss of negative electrons from the host material. Ideally, the TM ions oxidize to compensate this charge. Alarmingly, the stoichiometry of the latest LiMO2 cathode materials includes more lithium ions than the TM ions can compensate for. Inevitably, peroxide ions or dioxygen gas must form. The former mechanism is vital for lithium-air batteries, while the latter must be avoided. Battery researchers have long sought to completely characterize the intercalation reaction in working batteries. However, the volatile electrolytes employed in batteries are not compatible with vacuum-based characterization techniques, nor are the packaging materials required to contain the liquid. For the first time, a solid state battery (using exposed particles of Li1.17Ni0.25Mn0.58O2) was charged while using soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy to observe the redox trends in nickel, manganese and oxygen. This was combined with innovative hard X-ray absorption spectroscopic studies on the same material to create the most complete picture yet possible of charge compensation.

Abstract: There is an ongoing debate on whether risk-taking incentives align risk-averse managers’ interests with those of shareholders or whether such incentives lead to excessively risky firm and leverage policies. In this study, we shed light on this debate by using CEO risk-taking incentives, measured by the sensitivity of CEO wealth to changes in stock return volatility (Vega), and explain how Vega affects firms’ security issuance and repurchase activities. In general, we find that a higher Vega increases (decreases) the likelihood of debt issuance (share issuance) and it decreases (increases) the propensity of debt retirement (share repurchase). However, in high-levered firms, the positive effect of Vega on debt issuance and the negative influence of Vega on debt retirement are diminished. One the other hand, for equity issuance and repurchases, high leverage does not seem to alter the impact of Vega. These findings have three main implications: 1) in general, CEO risk-taking incentives (Vega) do affect the financing decisions of firms by increasing firms’ degree of leverage, (2) when existing leverage is high, CEO risk-taking incentives do not seem to induce CEOs to take excessive financial risks through debt issuance, but such incentives encourage them to continue repurchasing shares that would lead to even higher debt ratios and non-operational risks, and (3) firms with high Vega do not seem to adopt target debt ratios. JEL Classification: G30, G32, J33

Les actionneurs électromécaniques sont de plus en plus utilisés dans le domaine de la motorisation. Particulièrement, ils sont employés pour contrôler la boucle d'air du moteur Diesel. De tels actionneurs ont généralement une structure interne très complexe dont les caractéristiques sont protégées par des conventions de confidentialité. Notre travail dans cette thèse vise, en premier, à élaborer des procédures de modélisation et d'identification en prenant en compte une seule source de non linéarité, à savoir les frottements. Deux classes d'actionneurs sont ainsi étudiées et quatre procédures d'identification sont introduites permettant l'estimation des paramètres des systèmes et les coefficients des forces de frottement. Les résultats obtenus sont ensuite utilisés pour développer des simulateurs sous Simulink-MATLAB et AMESim dont la dynamique est expérimentalement validée via LabVIEW. Afin d'évaluer la dégradation des performances due au processus de vieillissement, la seconde partie du travail consiste en la réalisation des études de sensibilité quantifiant l'impact des variations paramétriques sur la réponse des actionneurs. Les techniques d'ANOVA (analyse des variances) et des plans d'expériences sont appliquées, en boucle ouverte et en boucle fermée, aux actionneurs étudiés. Les résultats issus des deux techniques sont cohérents permettant ainsi de valider les études réalisées.La dernière partie du travail a pour objectif l'élaboration de lois de commande robuste vis-à-vis des perturbations et des incertitudes de modélisation. Ainsi, trois stratégies de contrôle sont utilisées : PI-Flou (PI-Fuzzy controller), l'IDA-PBC (Interconnection and Damping Assignment - Passivity Based Control) et le backstepping. Les trois contrôleurs sont testés en présence et en absence d'incertitudes. Leur performance est démontrée en simulation en utilisant Simulink-MATLAB, et expérimentalement via LabVIEW.

Student Number : 0002483R - MSc dissertation - School of Molecular and Cell Biology - Faculty of Science / Isothermal titration calorimetry was used to investigate the forces that drive ligand binding to the active site of rGST M1-1. In an attempt to gain insight into the recognition of non-substrate ligands by GSTs, this study also investigates interactions between rGST M1-1 and ANS, a non-substrate ligand. At 25 °C, complex formation between rGST M1-1 and GSH, GSO3 -, and S-hexylglutathione is characterised by a monophasic binding isotherm with Kd values of 38.5 mM, 2.1 mM and 0.2 mM, respectively. One molecule of each ligand is bound per monomer of rGST M1-1. Binding of these ligands is enthalpically favourable and entropically unfavourable with a resultant favourable Gibbs free energy, overall. The effects of temperature and buffer ionisation on the energetics of binding were studied. The enthalpic and entropic contributions for all three ligands exhibited temperature dependence over the temperature range investigated (5-30 °C). The Gibbs free energy showed negligible changes with increasing temperature due to enthalpy-entropy compensation. The temperature dependence of the binding enthalpy yielded heat capacity changes of – 2.69 kJ/mol/K and –3.68 kJ/mol/K at 25 °C for GSH and S-hexylglutathione binding and –1.86 kJ/mol/K overall for GSO3 -. The linear dependence of DH on temperature for GSO3 - binding to rGST M1-1 suggests the formation of a more constrained complex which limits the fluctuations in conformations of the mu-loop at the active site. The non-linear dependence of DH on temperature for GSH and Shexylglutathione binding to the enzyme suggests the formation of a complex that samples different bound conformations due to the mobility of the mu-loop even after ligand is bound. Calorimetric binding experiments in various buffer systems with different ionisation enthalpies suggest that the binding of GSH to rGST M1-1 is coupled to the deprotonation of the thiol of GSH while GSO3 - binding to rGST M1-1 is independent of the buffer ionisation. At 25 °C, the rGST M1-1#1;ANS association is represented by a monophasic binding isotherm with one molecule of ANS bound per monomer of rGST M1-1. The interaction is both enthalpically and entropically driven with a Kd value of 27.2 mM representing moderate affinity. The effect of temperature on the interaction was investigated over the temperature range of 5-30 °C. The linear dependence of the binding enthalpy on temperature indicates that no significant structural changes occur upon binding of ANS to the enzyme (DCp = -0.34 kJ/mol/K). The change in heat capacity associated with the interaction can be attributed to the burial of the polar sulphonate group of ANS and the exposure of the anilino and naphthyl rings to solvent as well as the possibility of weak electrostatic interactions between ANS and residues at the active site. The effect of ethacrynic acid, GSH, GSO3 - and S-hexylglutathione on the fluorescence of ANS was investigated in order to obtain some idea as to the location of the ANS binding site on rGST M1-1. ANS was displaced by GSO3 -, S-hexylglutathione and ethacrynic acid, while no displacement occurred upon binding of GSH to the active site of rGST M1-1. Displacement studies and molecular docking simulations indicate that ANS binds to the H-site of rGST M1-1 and the possibility of a second binding site for the molecule cannot be ruled out.

CHDS State/Local / This thesis focuses on the medical as part of the public health response to Hurricane Katrina, specific to the issues of the private, non-governmental health professional. A brief survey was completed by 39 state level Bioterrorism Hospital Coordinators. Information obtained highlights the issues of the inability to deploy these private health professionals. Traditional governmental mutual aid mechanisms do not cover private non-governmental health professionals for workers compensation and death benefits. A review of the potential deployment mechanisms provides insight to the challenges and complexity specific to private health professionals. The motivation for volunteerism highlights the importance of targeting volunteer activities to the motivation of the individual volunteer. Investigating the impact thwarting the private, nongovernmental health professionals may have on future planning and response activities reinforce the need to modify the structures currently in place. The National Response Plan stresses the importance of including private industry into emergency preparedness and response strategies. This thesis outlines a strategy to pilot a project working with an established state volunteer registry by providing mechanisms to federalize those pre-identified, pre-credentialed volunteer health professionals. Once completed, this pilot could be expanded to other states ensuring a solid mechanism to quickly and safely mobilize this critical response discipline. / Bioterrorism Hospital Coordinator, Michigan Department of Community Health

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