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ABSTRACT Multinational marriages across borders have been tremendously increased for the past few years. The number of foreign brides, excluding those whom from Mainland China, has been standing at around 120,000 at the end of 2004. Among these brides, most of them take the Penghu as their residential area during the past three years. However, the problems of the culture differences for their life adjustment among the cross-border marriages have been turned out. Taiwanese government, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, has introduced the projects for life-guidance and relevant financial support to get rid of their difficulties of life adjustment. Nonetheless, there is a doubt that the fact is that most of the foreign brides are still faced with difficulties in livings. Given such a scenario, this study tries to review the projects to see the extent in which the foreign brides get accustomed to their community, and fulfill their potentials after joining the classes of life guidance. A documentary analysis and the questionnaire interviews are used to empirically examine the current context. After the pilot study, 265 samples of foreign brides in the Penghu country were collected. Among these respondents selected, 130 joined the life guidance class, while 135 did not. Via the aid of the software of Statistics Package of Social Science, The findings are shown as followings. a. The mature foreign brides were more likely to join the class than the junior. Of the brides, Indonesian brides were the major participants compared with those whom from Vietnam. Also, those who have received more school years attended the class more. The more years the brides stepped into marriage, the less possibility they joined the class. This was the same case in the brides who must spend more time to take care of children. b. The brides who attended the class tended to enjoy more satisfaction of livings than those who neglected the class. c. The foreign brides performed various life adjustments with their different ages, status of marriage, and standard of living and finance. d. The class participants revealed significant differences in life adjustments in terms of their attendance of class, attitude to class, and family support. e. The feelings after the class attendants were shown positive, pleasure, supportive, and satisfied. However, transportation and child care might stop their attendance. All the brides were in the hope of taking the class and learning Mandarin and they wished to develop knowledge through the classes under the family support.

Based on permanently operation faiths of enterprise and faced to the strike against recycle of economical prosperity, variation of society and information technology, the main purpose of this case study is to discuss how enterprise will be transform and the relationship between Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and Information Technology (IT). The object of this case study is Air Asia Company Limited (AACL) which is a 60-years enterprise and goes through verities managements by Arm Forces of USA, American operational company and Taiwanese operational company. This case study goes deep into understand industrial characteristic of AACL and influences from the trend of world economies and development polices of government in first step. Furthermore, this case study will discuss AACL¡¦s development background, company culture and problems of currently business operations and management, expecting by using BPR and IT to bring the transform opportunities for the subject enterprise. The main basement of this case study is mode of¡uThe 5 levels of Business Transformation enabled by Information Technology¡vwhich was raised by Venkatraman in 1995. Writer using the above mentioned mode to examine the Information Technology (IT) plays what kind of rules, the ranges and ways of influences during the development processes of the subject company. However, ¡§People¡¨ is main key elements to the success for leading the results of the above mentioned.

<p>Problem:</p><p>In order to keep up with the vast changes in the telecom industry, stay competitive and gain efficiency, Ericsson implemented a major re-organization in January 2007. The changes had large effects on the line-managers and their direct groups, proposing many critical issues regarding the implantation process and effects of the re-organization.</p><p>Purpose:</p><p>The purpose of this study was to carry out an analysis of how the implementation process of the re-organization at Ericsson was conducted. Also, how the outcomes of the new organizational design as well as the characteristics of the changes affected the line-managers.</p><p>Method:</p><p>Overall, a qualitative approach to research was chosen for this specific case-study. A total of 19 in-depth interviews were conducted with affected line-managers on four different locations and additional interviews with people in other positions were done in order to gain other perspectives of the changes. Issues of reliability, validity, objectivity and generalizability were approached in order to ensure an optimal methodology of this study.</p><p>Result:</p><p>The re-organization within Ericsson lead to a new focus in their matrix structure, moving from being product-based to competence-based. Generally, it was found that the changes were perceived differently in all four geographical sites but common for all is the confusion and mixed opinions regarding why the changes were conducted. Moreover, a strong corporate culture has lead to extremely high loyalty towards the organization.</p><p>Conclusion:</p><p>This study has led to many implications; theoretical, methodological and managerial. Some of the advice from the authors to Ericsson is to improve information and timing of change. Also, they must embrace and allow people to add input to the changes. Finally, the issue of knowledge transfer should be stressed in order to secure in-house competences.</p>

<p>The United States is the single largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. Its engagement is therefore critical to the success of any international effort to prevent man-made global climate change. It was therefore a huge step-back for the international community when President Bush soon after taking office in 2001 rejected the Kyoto Protocol. Despite a strong opposition the international community did not convince the Bush administration to reconsider its decision and re-engage in the Kyoto Protocol process. The objective of this thesis is to investigate which central elements that will increase a US inclination to participate in international agreements after the first commitment period in the Kyoto Protocol. These elements were found through a literature study of four peer-reviewed articles and an empirical analysis of four international partnership agreements. The overall conclusion is that there are several central elements that could increase a US inclination to participate in international agreements after the first commitment period in the Kyoto Protocol. These elements cover a wide range of disciplines from technology over research and development to business interests.</p>

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität St. Gallen, 2003.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2003. / "December 1, 2003"--T.p. Includes bibliographical references.

In light of the increasing need for affordable housing in cities, and because many city centers, especially older US city centers, are home to abandoned industrial buildings, this paper explores the potential for creating affordable housing through the adaptive re-use of such structures. Through a study of the current literature of both the current needs of affordable housing and the availability of the transition of adaptive re-use, this paper answers the questions of where this type of conversion has already taken place and explores what funding is available to make such a conversion financial possible. The paper then looks to three case studies in the United States to attempt to begin to answer under what local conditions adaptive re-use for affordable housing can succeed. Ultimately, this paper finds that under compliant circumstances, there is indeed a place for the adaptive re-use of abandoned structures to be developed into affordable housing. / text

Today, many museums both around the world and in Britain are in the process of renewing, rejuvenating, refurbishing and/or rebranding themselves. These museums are actually doing this in order to be able to respond better to the evolving needs and wants of consumers, which change continuously as a result of the transformations that take place in the consumer culture. The central aim of this thesis is to investigate the paradigm shifts happening in contemporary British museums, which evolve parallel to the evolving British consumer culture. These paradigm shifts actually seem to be a reflection of the paradigm shifts that are happening in 21st century museums all around the world, in general. Museums of today are highly interested in branding and they invest in it to a great extent. This is in part due to the effects of postmodernism on museums. This fondness for branding seems to turn museums into objects of consumption, makes them like other products in the market. Another aim of this thesis is to investigate how contemporary museums are defined as objects of consumption and managed as brands. For this purpose, Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), a British museum situated in Exeter, which has been going through an inclusive refurbishment process for the last four years, has been selected for carrying out an extended case study on. Diverse data collection tools have been used such as participant and non-participant observations were made; in-depth interviews with especially staff members and also some other stakeholders like volunteers and visitors were carried out, photographs were taken; website of the museum was analysed; a lot of field notes were taken and then these data have been analysed. The RAMM example and also the literature review made on world museums in general have shown that the museums of the last century have got into the direction of uniting and co-creating value with their visitors, in their museums. This is a thorough democratization process in the museum. In order for this to take place, museums have taken the interaction and participation levels with their visitors much higher. Detailed accounts on these and other phenomena about new museums can be found in the thesis.

In the context of regionalism and regionalisation, the notion of a region holds sway. Discussions around the topic of how spatial entities defined as ‘regions’ form, evolve, develop, become institutionalised and sometimes stabilized have been active and profound over the last forty years. Moreover, rich and diverse literature provides different conceptualizations and problematisation of regions that have been changing over time. ‘Heterogeneous relations’ that stretch over boundaries and are not territorially fixed have been accorded an increased attention in the regional studies. This research investigates the region building process in the Alpine region and analyses different agenda-settings pursued by various stakeholders in the Alpine region. The study employs qualitative methods to analyse processes of region building by applying Paasi’s institutionalisation theory. The findings show the regional dynamics in the case under investigation and claims that the Alpine region has being transformed from a closed, bounded, territorially fixed entity to a relational one, based on not territorially fixed heterogeneous relations. This transformation leads from a relatively ‘fixed’ Alpine region (as defined by Alpine Convention) to a more fluid, unbounded and ‘fuzzy’ space – the Alpine macro-region, which is being developing.