A Peer-to-Peer system is a distributed system whose component nodes participate in similar roles. Every user node (the peer) can exchange and contribute its resources to another one in the system. Similar to the case that peers may dynamically join and leave the system, the data will also be inserted into and removed from the system dynamically. Given a certain range, a range query will find any data item whose value within the range. For example, a range query can find all the Beatle's works between 1961 and 1968 for us. However, once the range data is distributed over a P2P system through the hash function which has been used largely in many P2P systems, the continuity of the range data is not guaranteed to exist. Therefore, finding the scattered data whose value within a certain range costs much in a P2P system. The Distributed Segment Tree method (DST) preserves the local continuity of the range data at each node by using a segment tree and can break any given range into minimum number of node intervals whose union constitutes the whole requested range. The DST method works based on the Distributed Hash Table (DHT) logic; therefore, it can be applied in any DHT-based P2P system. However, data distribution of the DST method may cause overlapping. When searching a data range, the DST method sends more number of requests than what is really needed. Although the DST method designs the Downward Load Stripping Mechanism, the load on peers still may not be balanced. The main reason of these problems is that the DST method applies the DHT logic to the P2P systems. Therefore, in this thesis, we propose a method called Structured Segment Tree (SST) that does not use the DHT logic but embeds the structure of the segment tree into the P2P systems. In fact, the P2P network topology of an SST is the structure of a segment tree. Unlike a DST, an SST can fully reflect the properties of the original segment tree. Each peer in our proposed P2P system represents a node of a segment tree. Data intervals at the same level are continuous and will not overlap with each other. The union of data intervals at a level with full nodes is totally the whole data range which the P2P system can support. When searching a data range, the SST method sends as many number of requests as needed. In addition, we add sibling links to preserve the spatial locality and speed up the search efficiency. For the issue of load balance, our SST method also performs better than the DST method. From our simulation, we show that the SST method routes less number of peers to locate the requested range data than the DST method. We also show that the load based on our method is more balanced than that based on the DST method.

The market that Taiwanese travel abroad is ripening gradually, especially after the rise of information science, technology and e-commerce. The information about travel products is transparent day by day, the ecology of travel agencies change too; though the number of people going abroad still grows up, but the profit of the travel agencies is dropping constantly. When the management of other industries have already entered ¡§the era of the meager profit¡¨, in fact the travel agencies have already entered the market of ¡§the slight profit ¡§, so the travel agencies are in a highly competitive environment invariably . However, how to evaluate the competitive environment and the essence of the competition effectively? To set up the unique and constant advantage and to start up the enterprise for a long time and lucrative growing up, will be the key for the enterprise to sustain in an unassailable position and to continue existing in the market, it¡¦s also the main purpose to conduct this study. The result of this study shows that under the external competition, if the travel agencies want to build up the competitive advantage from 6 dimensions among the same trade; Including products advantage dimension, brand advantage dimension, service advantage dimension, human resource advantage dimension, cost advantage dimension and price advantage dimension, the travel agencies must to analyze the resources and abilities they have internally; this paper takes a case study of Club Med in Taiwan and use the model and framework which was created by this study to explore the core competency, competitive strategy and competitive advantages of Club Med. Therefore, the main contribution of this study is to create ¡§The model of enterprise setting up the competitive advantage¡¨. Besides this key finding, there are some conclusions as following, which can be regarded as a reference by the travel agencies: 1. Travel agencies should enhance their core resources and abilities as valuable, rare, costly-to-imitate and non-substitutable capabilities, to create the sustainable competitive advantage. 2. Though the future development of the travel agencies will move towards the trend of the maximization or the minimization, but regardless the scale, the core competencies still the key success factors for a travel agent to sustain in the highly competitive environments. 3. Most of the travel agents in Taiwan belong to small and medium-sized enterprises, although they are not able to build up the advantage overall at brand, products, manpower, service, cost and price, but they must at least have one or two competitive advantages, such as products and service, if the travel agent own the unique products and differentiate service, even it¡¦s a small agent, still can compete with the competitors. 4. Even though the case company has the competitive advantage on brand image, case company still need to take the growth strategy to increase new market segments for growing up, and to take the differentiation strategy to develop the products and service which are suitable to the target audiences¡¦ need, to enhance the network with supplier's airline and distributor's travel agent, to strengthen the managerial ability of its holiday village continuously and to improve the service quality in order to obtain higher competition advantage .

<p>Abstract</p><p>As a part of the strategic planning process a company has to formulate a marketing strategy before entering a new market. For global marketers, formulation of a global marketing strategy is of big importance since it contributes benefits, including raising the efficacy of new-products launches, cost reduction and improving product quality and market share performance. India is a fast growing subcontinent and it is predicted to be among the top five economies in the world by the year 2025. The driving force in the Indian economy is the growing number of people from the middle class, which currently consists of over 300 million Indians. They are consuming progressively more western brands and more and more foreign companies are establishing in the country.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to get a better understanding of the Indian market in order to formulate a strategy for this market. The thesis aim to identify how a business to business company, with baby products aimed for the upper class segment, should formulate their marketing strategy. To be able to answer our research question we have conducted a number of qualitative interviews, including a focus group interview with potential Indian consumers. The result of our interviews, empirical data along with our collected theory shows that the Indian market is fragmented and diverse. This thesis tells us that a company offering exclusive products should focus on consumers living in urban areas of India. A company should considerate on important aspects when formulating a marketing strategy for the Indian market: Assessment and adjustment of core strategy (choice of competitive strategy), formulation of a global strategy (choice of competitive strategy, choice of segment, marketing in India, the purchase process, culture) and development of global marketing program (degree of standardization).</p>

Work conducted as part of this thesis evaluated the lifting techniques of paramedics using a novel link-segment model that was validated against a commercially available software package, 3D Static Strength Prediction Program (3DSSPP). Twenty-five paramedics visited the Biomechanics Lab at Queen’s University to participate in testing sessions mimicking the daily lifting and carrying tasks performed by paramedics on the job. Participants were outfitted with the Xsens Motion Tracking System and asked to lift and carry bags ranging from 5-20kg. Output from the Xsens system was used in a 3D-inverse dynamic model to estimate loading at the L5/S1 joint. The compressive and shear force estimates at this joint are of particular interest given their correlation with low back pain and injury. Across all conditions the greatest compressive forces were seen during bag pickup and bag release. Additionally, reaching forward 50 cm at pickup increased peak spinal compressive loads by nearly 300N and 500N for a 5kg and 10kg handbag respectively. Not surprisingly, at bag release greater trunk lean values were correlated with higher compressive force estimates. Single-shoulder backpack carries showed similar loading characteristics when compared to double-shoulder backpack carries. Shear force estimates remained well below acceptable levels across all conditions. Based on paramedic feedback, a supplementary testing session was performed with a single participant to evaluate multi-bag carries and stair climbing. The results of this testing session showed that loading was reduced at pickup and release when the load was distributed across two bags. This research led to the development of four recommendations that have been presented to the Association of Municipal Emergency Medical Services of Ontario. 1. Paramedics should not lift single bags or a combination of bags that exceed 20kg. 2. Prior to lifting, bags should be located as close to the paramedic as possible. 3. When placing bags on the ground and when picking bags up off of the ground, paramedics should use a squat lift technique to prevent forward and side bending. 4. When multiple bags are carried the load should be evenly distributed within bags and across sides of the body. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-30 19:26:18.28

No description available.

Companies allocate the majority of the acquisition price to goodwill, which has resulted in goodwill to become a prominent asset on companies balance sheets. Research shows that goodwill impairments lag behind the economic reality between two to four years and that the current accounting regime does not provide adequate disclosures to predict future impairments. The purpose of this paper is to examine what factors that can predict the occurrence of future goodwill impairments. We carry out our investigation by choosing several pre-acquisition and post-performance indicators, which we hand-collect from companies’ annual reports. Our sample includes acquisitions made by Swedish listed companies during the period 2005 to 2011. To examine the predictability of goodwill impairments we carry out a series of binary logistic regressions in which goodwill write-offs are predicted by our acquisition and performance indicators. Our results suggest that information on acquisition activity, change in segment-level return on assets and firm-level return on assets are useful to predict goodwill impairments. Although our findings indicate that information surrounding the acquisition and subsequent performance can be helpful in predicting future impairments there is still difficulties for external stakeholders to predict goodwill write-offs. This is due the fact that a majority of acquisitions lack adequate information on the acquired goodwill. Consequently, our findings have implications for the accounting literature and standard setters since it is questionable whether financial statements and their disclosures provide sufficient and relevant information to evaluate the economic reality of goodwill balances.

Today, many financial institutions extending credit rely on automated credit scorecard decision engines to drive credit strategies that are used to allocate (application scoring) and manage (behavioural scoring) credit limits. The accuracy and predictive power of these models are meticulously monitored, to ensure that they deliver the required separation between good (non-delinquent) accounts and bad (delinquent) accounts. The strategies associated to the scores (champion strategies) produced using the scorecards, are monitored on a quarterly basis (minimum), ensuring that the limit allocated to a customer, with its associated risk, is still providing the lender with the best returns on their appetite for risk. The strategy monitoring opportunity should be used to identify possible clusters of customers that are not producing the optimal returns for the lender. The identified existing strategy (champion) that does not return the desired output is challenged with an alternative strategy that may or may not result in better results. These clusters should have a relatively low credit risk ranking, be credit hungry, and have the capacity to service the debt. This research project focuses on the management of (behavioural) strategies that manage the ongoing limit increases provided to current account holders. Utilising a combination of the behavioural scores and credit turnover, an optimal recommended or confidential limit is calculated for the customer. Once the new limits are calculated, a sample is randomly selected from the cluster of customers and tested in the operational environment. With the implementation of the challenger, strategy should ensure that the intended change on the customer's limit is well received by the customers. Measures that can be used are risk, response, retention, and revenue. The champion and challenger strategies are monitored over a period until a victor (if there is one) can be identified. It is expected that the challenger strategy should have a minimal impact on the customers affected by the experiment and that the bank should not experience greater credit risk from the increased limits. The profit from the challenger should increase the interest revenue earned from the increased limit. Once it has been established through monitoring whether the champion or the challenger strategy has won, the winning strategy is rolled-out to the rest of the customers from the champion population. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Operational Research))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

Today, many financial institutions extending credit rely on automated credit scorecard decision engines to drive credit strategies that are used to allocate (application scoring) and manage (behavioural scoring) credit limits. The accuracy and predictive power of these models are meticulously monitored, to ensure that they deliver the required separation between good (non-delinquent) accounts and bad (delinquent) accounts. The strategies associated to the scores (champion strategies) produced using the scorecards, are monitored on a quarterly basis (minimum), ensuring that the limit allocated to a customer, with its associated risk, is still providing the lender with the best returns on their appetite for risk. The strategy monitoring opportunity should be used to identify possible clusters of customers that are not producing the optimal returns for the lender. The identified existing strategy (champion) that does not return the desired output is challenged with an alternative strategy that may or may not result in better results. These clusters should have a relatively low credit risk ranking, be credit hungry, and have the capacity to service the debt. This research project focuses on the management of (behavioural) strategies that manage the ongoing limit increases provided to current account holders. Utilising a combination of the behavioural scores and credit turnover, an optimal recommended or confidential limit is calculated for the customer. Once the new limits are calculated, a sample is randomly selected from the cluster of customers and tested in the operational environment. With the implementation of the challenger, strategy should ensure that the intended change on the customer's limit is well received by the customers. Measures that can be used are risk, response, retention, and revenue. The champion and challenger strategies are monitored over a period until a victor (if there is one) can be identified. It is expected that the challenger strategy should have a minimal impact on the customers affected by the experiment and that the bank should not experience greater credit risk from the increased limits. The profit from the challenger should increase the interest revenue earned from the increased limit. Once it has been established through monitoring whether the champion or the challenger strategy has won, the winning strategy is rolled-out to the rest of the customers from the champion population. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Operational Research))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

Forkhead (Fox) proteins are transcription factors that function in many processes including development, metabolism and cell cycle regulation. This gene family is divided into subfamilies that appear to originate from a common ancestor. I have identified the evolutionary selection pressures acting on individual amino acid positions in the FoxA, FoxC, FoxD, FoxI, FoxO and FoxP subfamilies. The patterns of selection observed allowed for the prediction of residue function and identification of residues that differentiate orthologs and paralogs. The subfamily structure and negative selection found within the subfamilies indicates that after gene duplication, differentiation of subfamilies through amino acid changes and subsequent negative selection on these changes has occurred. Meanwhile, the observed neutral changes and positive selection allow for further protein differentiation. Within the FoxC subfamily, positive selection was identified at one amino acid site in the inhibitory domain. Mutation of this site in FOXC1 alters transactivation activity and the effects of mutants on transactivation activity are different on different reporters. The mutant effects were consistent with those of known disease causing mutations, supporting the predicted positive selection. The inhibitory domain is known to function in reducing FOXC1 transactivation activity and influences protein stability. Here I additionally show that loss of the inhibitory domain and mutation of the positively selected site can reduce FOXC1 DNA binding. Co-transfection of FOXC1 and TLE4, a repressor protein that can potentially bind to the inhibitory domain, was shown to increase FOXC1 transactivation activity. The effects of a novel disease causing FOXC1 inhibitory domain mutation on FOXC1 function were also assessed. The mutation reduced FOXC1 transactivation activity and increased protein half-life both of which may lead to disease. Regulation of FOXC1 activity is critical for normal function and this work has furthered our knowledge of how the inhibitory domain influences FOXC1 activity. I have provided biological evidence for the theory that positive selection acts at the amino acid level to optimize protein function. I have also shown that both changes in transcription factor proteins and the cis-regulatory region of target genes have the potential to contribute to evolutionary adaptation.

Zugl.: Eichstätt, Ingolstadt, Univ., Diss., 2005