Non-indigenous species have become a global issue of increasing importance in recent years, with many causing significant environmental and economic damage. Identifying locations vulnerable to invasion allows for focus of management efforts towards prevention of invasions at those locations. In order to determine whether constructed water bodies, such as reservoirs, ornamental lakes or retired mines, are more easily invaded environments than natural water bodies, owing to decreased biotic resistance, the distributions of native and non-indigenous freshwater calanoid copepod species in the North Island were examined. Calanoid copepods in ports and other coastal environments were also examined, in order to determine whether ports are more frequently invaded owing to increased propagule supplies from visiting ships and other sources. The distributions of the native freshwater calanoid copepod species Boeckella hamata, B. propinqua, B. delicata and B. tanea are confined in the North Island of New Zealand to specific technostratigraphic terranes when natural waters only are examined, and as such each species can be considered to have a native range. The recently colonised calanoid copepod species Boeckella minuta (6 locations), Skistodiaptomus pallidus (3 locations) and Sinodiaptomus valkanovi (2 locations) are to date confined to constructed water bodies. Boeckella symmetrica (2 locations) may be confined to constructed water bodies, but the status of one location is unclear. Boeckella triarticulata, a species common in the South Island, is known only from a single farm dam in the North Island. The native species Boeckella hamata, B. propinqua and B. delicata were found to occur in constructed waters, but only B. propinqua was found in constructed water bodies outside their natural ranges (9 locations). Calamoecia lucasi is found in lakes throughout most of the North Island, and is not confined to any one terrane. My results indicate that constructed water bodies are more easily invaded by non-indigenous species than natural water bodies, represents a potential pathway for future invaders to establish, and provides locations for species to spread. In order to determine whether recently established freshwater calanoid copepod species have the potential to spread from their present habitats into other water bodies, the prosomal lengths of non-indigenous calanoid copepod species were measured and compared with those for native species. The results suggest that dietary overlap should prevent the non-indigenous species present to date from spreading into any water bodies with established Boeckella populations, although Sinodiaptomus valkanovi and Boeckella triarticulata could potentially spread to lakes containing only Calamoecia lucasi. Data on the co-occurrences of native freshwater calanoid copepod species support the theory of dietary exclusion, as Boeckella species have not been found to coexist. In order to test whether New Zealand marine environments have been invaded by non-indigenous calanoid copepods, and whether ports have been more regularly invaded than non-port areas, calanoid copepods were sampled from various coastal locations around the North Island. With the possible exception of Sulcanus conflictus, no non-indigenous species were found, indicating that non-indigenous marine calanoid copepod species are not establishing in New Zealand despite a history of invasion elsewhere.

Two conceptual approaches which offer promise for improved understanding of biological invasions are conceptualizing the invasion process as a series of distinct stages and explicitly incorporating human actions into analyses. This study explores the utility of these approaches for understanding the invasion of Trifolium (true clover) species in New Zealand. From the published literature, I collected a range of Trifolium species attributes, including aspects of global transport and use by humans, opportunistic association with humans in New Zealand, native range attributes, habitat characteristics, and biological traits. I also searched historical records to estimate the extent to which each species had been planted in New Zealand, a search facilitated by the enormous importance of Trifolium in New Zealand’s pastoral agriculture system. Regression analysis and structural equation modelling were then used to relate these variables to success at each invasion stage. Fifty-four of the 228 species in the genus Trifolium were intentionally introduced to New Zealand. Species introduced for commercial agriculture were characterised by a large number of economic uses and presence in Britain, while species introduced for horticulture or experimental agriculture were characterised by a large native range area. Nine of these 54 intentionally introduced species subsequently naturalised in New Zealand. The species that successfully naturalised were those that had been planted extensively by humans and that were well-matched to the New Zealand climate. A further 16 species (from the pool of 174 species that were never intentionally introduced) arrived and naturalised in New Zealand without any recorded intentional aid of humans. Several attributes appeared to assist species in unintentional introduction-naturalisation, including a good match to the New Zealand climate, a large native range area, presence in human-influenced habitats, a widespread distribution in Britain, and self-pollination capability. The 25 total naturalised species varied greatly in their current distributions and in the rates at which they had spread to achieve those distributions. Species that had spread quickly and are currently more widespread had been frequent contaminants in the pasture seed supply and have a long flowering period in New Zealand. Other biological traits and native range attributes played supporting roles in the spread process. Attributes facilitating success clearly varied among invasion stages. Humans played a dominant role at all stages of this invasion, although biological traits had increasing importance as a species moved through the invasion sequence. My findings suggest that incorporation of human actions and the stage-based framework provide valuable insight into the invasion process. I discuss potential avenues by which these approaches might be integrated into predictive invasion models.

近年來隨著金融市場的多元化，各公司企業莫不努力尋找一種成本較低、對投資者亦較有利的金融商品，兼具普通股與債券二種性質的特別股，由於具有高度設計彈性的優點，相信將是公司在進行理財活動所不可或缺的重要工具之一。 由於台灣特別股市場遠小於普通股，而市場中的特別股多數又屬於到期時強迫轉換的可轉換特別股，因此學術上以多以可轉換特別股作為研究標的，研究其市價與理論價格間的關係。本文在研究台灣證券市場中三家公司所發行的特別股，其權利義務條件幾乎與普通股無異，這樣一種「可說就是普通股」的特別股，甚至比普通股更好，對投資人更有保障。理論上這樣由同一公司所發行的二種條件相近的證券，應會反應相同資訊，而使二者價格維持著某種穩定的關係。但從歷史股價看出，特別股與普通股股價間似乎並未有一致的關係，本文即在討論是何種因素導致特別股與普通股股價間呈現如此差異。 實證結果發現，整體而言公司的基本面與交易面都會影響股價價差的改變，在單因子的檢定中，來自交易面的影響效果略顯著於基本面，可見市場交易狀況對股價有不容忽視的因重要性。但若以價差的大小作為分期基礎，將期間分為前後兩期，並以相同方法重新進行實證研究後發現，早期公司基本面對價差的改變並不顯著，影響方向也相當凌亂；但後期基本面因素則有逐漸重要之趨勢。此外，在考慮因素間的關係，選取相關係數較低的變數繼續進行多元複迴歸檢定，實證發現在同時考慮基本面與交易面時，基本面因素仍為價差改變的重要因素，來自交易面的影響力會減小。 此外本文亦對普通股及特別股進行績效評估，實證結果發現，三家公司六支股票的績效好壞各半，未有特別股的績效一定大於普通股或普通股的績效一定大於特別股的一致結論出現。 第一章 緒論1 第一節 研究動機與目的 1 第二節 論文架構 7 第二章 文獻探討 9 第一節 特別股發行之目的 9 第二節 特別股之事件研究 11 第三節 特別股的價格行為 13 第四節 二種相關證券收益率差異分析 15 第三章 公司介紹 17 第一節 國喬石油化學股份有限公司 17 第二節 華隆股份有限公司 26 第三節 中國鋼鐵股份有限公司 36 第四節 簡介台灣證券交易所上市之特別股 43 第四章 研究方法 47 第一節 研究範圍與資料來源 47 第二節 研究假說 48 第三節 變數的定義與分析 50 第四節 研究方法 54 第五章 實證結果分析 57 第一節 單因子迴歸模型檢定 57 第二節 多元迴歸模型檢定 64 第三節 特別股績效分析 68 第六章 結論與研究限制 71 參考文獻 附錄 表 目 錄 表1.1 三公司股價統計資料 4 表2.1 我國歷年企業發行特別股之目的與性質 11 表3.1 國喬石油化學公司上市前主要股東名單 19 表3.2 國喬石油化學公司上市時股權比例佔前十名之股東名稱 19 表3.3 國喬公司近年重大轉投資公司與其獲利狀況 23 表3.4 國喬公司財務分析 25 表3.5 民國58年至民國60年華隆公司生產狀況 26 表3.6 華隆公司主要業務內容與經營比重 30 表3.7 華隆公司轉投資事業概況 32 表3.8 中鋼歷年擴建表 36 表3.9 中鋼六次釋股彙總表 37 表3.10 中鋼公司主要產品及用途表 38 表3.11 中鋼擴建工程資金來源表 42 表3.12 中鋼公司財務結構 42 表3.13 上市公司增資發行特別股計畫一覽表 46 表5.1 單因子迴歸模型檢定結果 58 表5.2 國喬公司財務指標相關係數矩陣 65 表5.3 華隆公司財務指標相關係數矩陣 66 表5.4 中鋼公司財務指標相關係數矩陣 67 表5.5 多元迴歸模型變數 68 表5.6 多元迴歸模型檢定結果 69 表5.7 特別股與普通股之持有之績效表 68 圖 目 錄 圖1.1 國喬石油化學股份有限公司股價圖 5 圖1.2 華隆股份有限公司股價圖 5 圖1.3 中國鋼鐵股份有限公司股價圖 6 圖3.1 石化產業關連簡圖 21 附 錄 附錄一 特別股權利義務一覽表 I 附錄二 特別股發行程序 XIX 附錄三 台灣證券交易所股份有限公司有價證券上市審查準則歷史沿革摘錄 XX 附錄四 國喬石油化學股份有限公司大事紀要 XXIV 附錄五 華隆股份有限公司大事紀要 XXVIII 附錄六 中國鋼鐵股份有限公司大事紀要 XXXIII

<p>The first hospital outbreak of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and carriage rates of VRE and ampicillin-resistant enterococci (ARE) in Sweden were investigated. Clonal relationships and mutations in fluoroquinolone resistance determining regions among ARE collected nation-wide were studied. Risk factors for ARE infection, shedding of ARE and the presence of the virulence gene <i>esp</i> in ARE isolates and patients on a hematology unit and other units at Uppsala University Hospital were further investigated. </p><p>The first Swedish hospital VRE outbreak was due to clonal spread of <i>E. faecium, vanA</i>. The nation wide carriage rates of ARE and VRE were 21.5% / 1% and 6% / 0%, among hospitalized patients and non-hospitalized individuals respectively. All ARE and VRE were <i>E. faecium</i> and >90% resistant to ciprofloxacin. All VRE carried<i> vanB</i>. Carriage of ARE was independently associated with >5 days of antibiotic treatment. Phenotypic and genetic typing showed a significantly higher homogeneity among ARE compared to matched ASE <i>E. faecium</i> isolates. Mutations conferring high-level ciprofloxacin resistance were found only in ARE. Risk factors for ARE infection included long duration of hospital stay and exposure to antibiotics. Skin carriage was associated with ARE shedding. ARE bacteremia was independently associated with prior ARE colonization and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Death was more common in ARE septicemia cases compared to controls. <i>Esp</i> was significantly more common in ARE surveillance compared to ARE blood isolates from patients on the hematology ward.</p><p>In conclusion, VRE were rare but clonally related multi-resistant ARE <i>E. faecium</i> were highly prevalent in Swedish hospitals. Spread of ARE in hospitals during the 1990s is suggested to be the main explanation for the emergence of ARE in Sweden. Spread was facilitated by use of antibiotics and probably by the presence of virulence genes in<i> E. faecium</i> isolates.</p>

The first hospital outbreak of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and carriage rates of VRE and ampicillin-resistant enterococci (ARE) in Sweden were investigated. Clonal relationships and mutations in fluoroquinolone resistance determining regions among ARE collected nation-wide were studied. Risk factors for ARE infection, shedding of ARE and the presence of the virulence gene esp in ARE isolates and patients on a hematology unit and other units at Uppsala University Hospital were further investigated. The first Swedish hospital VRE outbreak was due to clonal spread of E. faecium, vanA. The nation wide carriage rates of ARE and VRE were 21.5% / 1% and 6% / 0%, among hospitalized patients and non-hospitalized individuals respectively. All ARE and VRE were E. faecium and &gt;90% resistant to ciprofloxacin. All VRE carried vanB. Carriage of ARE was independently associated with &gt;5 days of antibiotic treatment. Phenotypic and genetic typing showed a significantly higher homogeneity among ARE compared to matched ASE E. faecium isolates. Mutations conferring high-level ciprofloxacin resistance were found only in ARE. Risk factors for ARE infection included long duration of hospital stay and exposure to antibiotics. Skin carriage was associated with ARE shedding. ARE bacteremia was independently associated with prior ARE colonization and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Death was more common in ARE septicemia cases compared to controls. Esp was significantly more common in ARE surveillance compared to ARE blood isolates from patients on the hematology ward. In conclusion, VRE were rare but clonally related multi-resistant ARE E. faecium were highly prevalent in Swedish hospitals. Spread of ARE in hospitals during the 1990s is suggested to be the main explanation for the emergence of ARE in Sweden. Spread was facilitated by use of antibiotics and probably by the presence of virulence genes in E. faecium isolates.

An increased use of medical devices has been assumed to be a major cause of rising healthcare expenditures. Nations around the world are trying to keep costs down, but strong incentives still exist for the development and use of new devices. Innovation is, however, never exclusively good or bad and it is not easy to evaluate the net effect. Theories and empirical research on innovation have been produced for more than 100 years. In this, the diffusion of innovations has attracted the most interest, while other areas, such as the integration of technologies, have been less thoroughly researched. This thesis presents a model of medical device innovation in hospitals – from the first idea and invention effort to regular use of a new technology. The suggested model is built on three fundaments: (1) academic innovation literature, (2) empirical studies, and (3) observations of on-going innovation processes. The model is a synthesis of the accumulated knowledge in different innovation research traditions, and of empirical studies of the Swedish healthcare system and the medical device industry. The aim is to give a comprehensive picture of the innovation process, and to provide a theoretical model, which can be used for studying and influencing the paths of medical device innovations into healthcare practice. In order to achieve a balanced rate of change, with long-term societal benefits, an inter-disciplinary approach is necessary in the planning and regulation of medical device innovation. The new model combines academic views with political/entrepreneurial and healthcare views. Innovation, in this model, is suggested to occur in three integrated activity domains: invention, diffusion, and deployment. A great number of factors that influence these activities are investigated and described, and different roles and incentives are discussed. Deviations from traditional innovation theory are for example: (a) integration of invention activities as having an impact on later events; (b) inclusion of the inventor/developer as a main actor also in the diffusion and deployment domains; (c) increased focus of the concept of technology cluster innovation, and (d) the rationality of use and abandonment of knowledge as factors to be included in the estimation of consequences of innovation. Finally, the thesis suggests a number of model and methodology improvements and policy implications for management of innovation in hospitals.

A parallel GPU compatible Lagrangian mesh free particle solver for multiphase fluid flow based on SPH scheme is developed and used to capture the interface evolution during droplet impact. Surface tension is modeled employing the multiphase scheme of Hu et al. (2006). In order to precisely simulate the wetting phenomena, a method based on the work of Šikalo et al. (2005) is jointly used with the model proposed by Afkhami et al. (2009) to ensure accurate dynamic contact angle calculations. Accurate predictions were obtained for droplet contact angle during spreading. A two-dimensional analytical model is developed as an expansion to the work of Chandra et al. (1991). Results obtain from the solver agrees well to this analytical results. Effects of memory management techniques along with a variety of task assigning algorithms on GPU are studied. GPU speedups of up to 120 times faster than a single processor CPU were obtained.

A parallel GPU compatible Lagrangian mesh free particle solver for multiphase fluid flow based on SPH scheme is developed and used to capture the interface evolution during droplet impact. Surface tension is modeled employing the multiphase scheme of Hu et al. (2006). In order to precisely simulate the wetting phenomena, a method based on the work of Šikalo et al. (2005) is jointly used with the model proposed by Afkhami et al. (2009) to ensure accurate dynamic contact angle calculations. Accurate predictions were obtained for droplet contact angle during spreading. A two-dimensional analytical model is developed as an expansion to the work of Chandra et al. (1991). Results obtain from the solver agrees well to this analytical results. Effects of memory management techniques along with a variety of task assigning algorithms on GPU are studied. GPU speedups of up to 120 times faster than a single processor CPU were obtained.

在全球股市呈現不穩的情勢下，雙元外匯存款產品成為財富管理業務所發展的熱門產品。雙元外匯存款產品結構包括外匯選擇權與定期外幣存款。然外匯選擇權的操作過程所隱含的風險必須加以探討，因此本研究以美國那斯達克股市報酬率與美國國庫券與十年期公債利差等資訊，試著藉由集群分析，探討美元兌澳幣(USD/AUD)、美元兌英鎊(USD/GBP)、歐元兌澳幣(EUR/AUD)等元存款產品之報酬率與風險。 本研究實證結果為: 一、不同市場狀態的操作策略不同 從各集群的涵義來看，當市場狀態屬於集群1時，此時Nasdaq指數日報酬率處於高檔但已有長期成長疑慮下，則「短期看多澳幣，看空美元」為一正確的外匯策略判斷基礎。當市場處於集群2的經濟成長性與股市報酬率處於較樂觀的狀態下，「短期看多英鎊，看空美元」與「短期看空美元，看多澳幣」是較適合的判斷。當市場處於集群3的股市低檔與債券市場反映經濟成長訊息的狀態下，則「看多澳幣，看空歐元」與「短期看空澳幣，看多美元」等為較佳的策略思維。 二、雙元存款產品的現金流量補償機制必須依據不同市場狀態 本研究發現雙元外匯存款產品在不同匯率與不同集群下，會有不同的Mean/StDev值，代表投資者與財富管理業者必須面對外匯市場進行利益的分配問題。目前雙元外匯存款產品都有設定不同匯率下的保本機制，故對於財富管理業者而言，雙元外匯存款產品屬於資金短期配置的選項之一，因此，針對不同的總體經濟或市場環境，業者必須快速調整，創造投資者與業者雙贏的局面。 / With the global stock markets unstable, foreign-exchange-option-linked dual currency structure notes have become the popular products for wealth management. Foreign-exchange-option-linked dual currency structure notes have been involved with foreign exchange option and currency deposit. Nonetheless, the risks inherent in the currency option should be discussed . Therefore, this study uses cluster analysis to explore the information in Nasdaq index returns and interest spreads , to discover the returns and risks in foreign exchange rates in term of “USD/AUD”, “USD/GBP”, and “EUR/AUD”. After the analysis in this study, the conclusions of this study could be summarized as following: Firstly , the proposals and strategies for the dual currency structure notes should be based on the statuses of markets. With market status showing higher stock returns but concerns for future economic growth, the appropriate strategies should be built up on the concept of “short USD, long AUD in near term”. When market status showing positive stock returns and positive future economic growth, the appropriate strategies should be built up on the concept of “short USD, long AUD in near term” or “short USD, long GBP in near term”. With market status reflecting lower stock returns but positive perspectives for future economic growth, the appropriate strategies should be built up on the concept of “short EURO, long AUD in near term”, or “short AUD, long USD in near term”. Based on the Mean/StDev , this study suggests the wealth managers should design different portfolios under different scenarios in foreign exchange rates, to generate best payoffs between the investors and wealth managers.

Résumé : Cette thèse comporte 8 chapitres. Le chapitre 1 est une introduction aux problématiques rencontrées sur les marchés énergétiques : fréquence d'intervention faible, coûts de transaction élevés, évaluation des options spread. Le chapitre 2 étudie la convergence de l'erreur de couverture d'une option call dans le modèle de Bachelier, pour des coûts de transaction proportionnels (modèle de Leland-Lott) et lorsque la fréquence d'intervention devient infinie. Il est prouvé que cette erreur est bornée par une variable aléatoire proportionnelle au taux de transaction. Cependant, les démonstrations de convergence en probabilité demandent des régularités sur les sensibilités assez restrictives en pratique. Les chapitres suivants contournent ces obstacles en étudiant des convergences presque sûres. Le chapitre 3 développe tout d'abord de nouveaux outils de convergence presque sûre. Ces résultats ont de nombreuses conséquences sur le contrôle presque sûr de martingales et de leur variation quadratique, ainsi que de leurs incréments entre deux temps d'arrêt généraux. Ces résultats de convergence trajectorielle sont connus pour être difficiles à obtenir sans information sur les lois. Par la suite, nous appliquons ces résultats à la minimisation presque sûre de la variation quadratique renormalisée de l'erreur de couverture d'une option de payoff général (cadre multidimensionnel, payoff asiatique, lookback) sur une large classe de temps d'intervention. Une borne inférieure à notre critère est trouvée et une suite minimisante de temps d'arrêt optimale est exhibée : il s'agit de temps d'atteinte d'ellipsoïde aléatoire, dépendant du gamma de l'option. Le chapitre 4 étudie la convergence de l'erreur de couverture d'une option de payoff convexe (dimension 1) en prenant en compte des coûts de transaction à la Leland-Lott. Nous décomposons l'erreur de couverture en une partie martingale et une partie négligeable, puis nous minimisons la variation quadratique de cette martingale sur une classe de temps d'atteintes générales pour des Deltas vérifiant une certaine EDP non-linéaire sur les dérivées secondes. Nous exhibons aussi une suite de temps d'arrêt atteignant cette borne. Des tests numériques illustrent notre approche par rapport à une série de stratégies connues de la littérature. Le chapitre 5 étend le chapitre 3 en considérant une fonctionnelle des variations discrètes d'ordre Y et de Z de deux processus d'Itô Y et Z à valeurs réelles, la minimisation étant sur une large classe de temps d'arrêt servant au calcul des variations discrètes. Borne inférieure et suite minimisant sont obtenues. Une étude numérique sur les coûts de transaction est faite. Le chapitre 6 étudie la discrétisation d'Euler d'un processus multidimensionnel X dirigé par une semi-martingale d'Itô Y . Nous minimisons sur les temps de la grille de discrétisation un critère quadratique sur l'erreur du schéma. Nous trouvons une borne inférieure et une grille optimale, ne dépendant que des données observables. Le chapitre 7 donne un théorème limite centrale pour des discrétisations d'intégrale stochastique sur des grilles de temps d'atteinte d'ellipsoïdes adaptées quelconque. La corrélation limite est conséquence d'asymptotiques fins sur les problèmes de Dirichlet. Dans le chapitre 8, nous nous intéressons aux formules d'expansion pour les options sur spread, pour des modèles à volatilité locale. La clé de l'approche consiste à conserver la propriété de martingale de la moyenne arithmétique et à exploiter la structure du payoff call. Les tests numériques montrent la pertinence de l'approche.