Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-250).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2009. / "Submitted to Department of Electronic Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." Includes bibliographical references.

Precious Wedding is a professional wedding favors company in Taiwan which aims at helping every groom and bride create an unforgettable wedding experience through ideal wedding favors. As wedding favors is neither a brand-new nor prevalent product concept for most Taiwanese, coupled with the fact that there are fewer than 20 competitors selling on a large scale, we assume that the wedding favors industry in Taiwan is currently at the late introduction stage of a product life cycle. To test whether the wedding favors market in Taiwan will be profitable or not, we performed an online survey with 111 valid responses collected. The survey result turned out to be extremely positive as 88% of respondents claimed they will or they are likely to purchase wedding favors ( or recommend others to do so), implying that huge sales and growth potentials are awaiting us to explore. In terms of finance, we acquired NT$5,250,934 in our NPV calculation from year 1 to year 5, while the sensitivity analysis also generated positive outcomes even in the most pessimistic scenario, ranging from the lowest of NT$3,411,729 to the highest of NT$6,734,601.These figures all can be served as strong evidences that Precious Wedding is a great company to be invested on.

This research emphasizes on the use of seeded growth in synthesis of noble metal nanocrystals with precise control over the size, shape, and composition. In the first part of this work, I have produced Au nanocrystals with single-crystal structure and truly spherical profiles and investigated their optical properties and self-assembly as induced by dilution with water. These Au nanospheres were generated in high yield and purity, together with controllable sizes continually increased from 5 to 150 nm. I also found these Au nanospheres self-assembled into dimers, larger aggregates, and wavy nanowires, respectively, as diluted with water. In the second part of this work, I demonstrate the kinetic control can be implemented to control the shape of mono- and bi-metallic nanocrystals in seeded growth. The as-prepared single-crystal nanospheres of Au were employed as seeds to synthesize of tetrahedral Au nanocrystals and Au@Pd core-shell nanocrystals with six distinct shapes. The success of the two demonstrations relies on manipulation of reaction kinetics to achieve different product shapes. The reaction kinetics was controlled by varying a set of reaction parameters, including the type and concentration of capping agent, the amount of reductant, and the injection rate of metal precursor solution. In the final part of this work, I will discuss an unusual change in crystallinity observed in seeded growth of Au nanocrystals on Au seeds. In particular, single-crystal Au seeds treated with a chemical species could develop twin defects during the seed-mediated growth process to yield multiply twinned products.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 1996

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1989. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-74).

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1989. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-142).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2007. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-55).

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-127). Also available in electronic version.