Because of the popularity of the internet, consumers make purchase decision based on online word-of-mouth recommendation. However, this is risky. Many consumer find that what they buy is not quite the same as the online word-of-mouth recommends. Consumers may therefore generate Cognitive dissonance. Despite the bad experience, Internet users still make purchase decision based on word-of-mouth recommendation afterward. This study investigates the relationships among cognitive dissonance of online word-of-mouth users, the risk relieve strategies, and trust. The results find that consumers with inertia prefer store image as risk relieve strategy the most, consumers with over-confidence prefer shopping the most. It is found that inertia and over-confidence positively affect trust. This research contributes to theory by applying the theory of cognitive dissonance in the finance management field to consumer online word-of-mouth behavior and by designing the questionnaire, this paper also provides empirical evidence to support the validity and credibility of the construct items. It makes acaedemic contribution by examining effects of cognitive dissonance on risk strategy and trust.

The effects of feeding with two high energy diets ( high carbohydrate and high lipid) and the feeding regime of the two diets on growth, feeding conversion rate, and body composition of the cobia were studied. Based on the observation of lipid redistribution under dietary regime change in rats, this study was aimed to understand how regime change affects the tissue lipid content in the cobia. The study had three parts: preliminary experiment, experiment I, and experiment II. The preliminary experiment was designed to find the proper time to switch the high energy diets and to see the adaptation of cobia to the highe energy dietary treatments. The experiment I was conducted to monitor the growth and body composition of cobia fed for thirty-two days with different experimental diets, including control diets, high carbohydrate diets (HC), high lipid diets (HL), and different feeding regimes (HC¡÷HL: feeding the HC diet for the first sixteen days and the HL diet for the subsequent sixteen days; HL¡÷HC: feeding the HL diet for the first sixteen days and the HC diet for the subsequent sixteen days. The experiment II was studied serum concentration of glucose, triacylglycerol, and free fatty acids and tissues triacylglycerol concentration in liver and white muscle. The fish fed with the HC diet had higher body weight and lower feeding conversion rate than the HL group in first sixteen days; however, the growth of the two groups was not significantly different during the thirty-two day period. The lipid content of dorsal muscle was significantly higher in HC¡÷HL than that in HL¡÷HC; wherease, the lipid content of ventral muscle and viscera was not signficantly affected. The concentrations of serum triacylglycerol, free fatty acid, and relative mean ratio of triacylglycerol in muscle to triacylglycerol in liver were significantly affected. The results of relative mean ratio of serum TG to serum FFA and relative mean ratio of muscle TG to liver TG, suggest that high carbohydrate diet drives de nova lipid production in liver, which circulates to the peripheral tissues for storage as triacylglycerol. High lipid diet preferentially offers energy for lipolysis to produce energy. These results are consistant with the results in rats. Our results show that high energy diets provided a higher growth rate than the control diet, but there were no growth difference in cobia fed high carbohydrate diets, or high lipid diets, or between different feeding regimes. The cobia fed the high carbohydrate diet and the high lipid diet might use different ways for lipid accumulation. These fed the high carbohydrate diet had formed more triacylglycerol than that these fed high lipid diets. The feeding regime shift between the high carbohydrate diet and the high lipid diet significantly affect the the lipid content of the dorsal muscle in the cobia.

Ahronglong Sakinu is a Paiwan writer who has great charm and has been maintaining the pride of the indigenous people with his humorous and optimistic personality and defending the treasures of Paiwan culture with his incredibly enthusiasm and dedication. By using a plain but unique style of writing, Sakinu touches the heart of the readers. Not only does Sakinu pass his father¡¦s wisdom as a hunter in his works, but he also defends the Paiwan culture with his pen instead of his Aboriginal knife. Through his approachable and fun style of writing, Sakinu always infects his readers with his optimistic thoughts. On this account, this study attempts to adopt the text analysis method and interviews to explore the writing strategies and the spirit and meaning of Sakinu¡¦s works. This study has divided into five chapters to conduct the discussion, and the main contents of each chapter are listed as follows: Chapter 1: ¡§Introduction¡¨¢wThis chapter contains the research motivation, research scope and methodology, literature review, and thesis structure. Chapter 2: ¡§Ahronglong Sakinu¡¦s Life and Works¡¨¢wThis chapter sequentially introduces Sakinu¡¦s background from his boyhood, his job in Special Police First Headquarters, to the time he returned to his tribe in order to probe into his road of cultural identity and his determination of establishing a hunter school. Further, the influence of Paiwan culture on him has been explored as well. In the end of this chapter, his works that have been published so far are also provided for a throughout exploration. Chapter 3: ¡§Ahronglong Sakinu¡¦s Writing Strategies¡¨¢wThe writing strategies of his works have been explored from three aspects: the forms of language expression, the skills of language expression, and the strategies of rhetorical application. In the forms of language expression, Sakinu has a unique writing style which presents a large number of untranslated Aboriginal words and Aboriginal language with phonetic symbols in his works. In addition, he also has excellent rhetorical skills which sufficiently and clearly show his feelings towards the harmonious living with the nature through an anthropomorphic animal world and subtle animal metaphors. Also, both the first-person form of expression and the extensive use of dialogue make his works more vivid and lively. Chapter 4: ¡§The Spirit and Meaning of Ahronglong Sakinu¡¦s Works¡¨¢wIn this chapter, four aspects which include ¡§the assistant who enlightens the literary life¡¨, ¡§inherit the wisdom of a philosophical hunter¡¨, ¡§arouse the self-identity of the tribal group¡¨ and ¡§accuse the invasion of power culture¡¨ have been explored to have a better understanding of the spirit and meaning of Sakinu¡¦s works. Chapter 5: ¡§Conclusion¡¨¢wThe final chapter has summarized the research results of this study. Moreover, the value of Sakinu¡¦s works and their contributions to developing and preserving traditional culture have been also explored to see the implementation of the traditional hunter culture in his works. Finally, further relevant research that can be extended is provided for future reference as well.

While there has been tremendous growth in the numbers of Hispanics and English language learners (ELLs) in our public schools, there has been a lack of educational opportunities offered to these students resulting in low educational achievement and attainment. Additionally, increases in the linguistic and cultural diversity of the student population have not been accompanied by diversification of the corps of teachers and many teachers who serve ELLs are not certified or prepared adequately to meet the linguistic and academic needs of second language learners. This context, in which the potential of our nation's ELLs is not being met by our education system, calls for research focusing on the education of ELLs. The three studies that constitute this dissertation address two critical areas, reading and mathematics, by documenting the cognitive reading strategies that middle school Hispanic ELLs utilize and evaluating professional development activities for teachers of ELLs. The mixed methods studies used student self-report data from the Reading Strategies Questionnaire (RSQ) as well as observational and survey data from a professional development program. Means and standard deviations were reported from the RSQ. Data from the observations of the professional development program were coded to determine the topics that were addressed in the program. Results from the RSQ indicate that Hispanic ELLs, in general, do not consistently adopt a strategic approach to reading in English. Additionally, while professional development is one avenue to improve the instruction that Hispanic ELLs receive, results from the observations indicate that teachers receive professional development of limited quality and that little of the professional development is connected to instruction for ELLs. Findings from this series of studies can be utilized to inform reading instruction for ELLs and to enhance professional development opportunities for teachers of ELLs.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the phenomena of transition, adjustment, and transformation among adult graduate students from India, who made the transition to Nurture University in the southwestern part of the United States. According to Open Doors 2008, since 2001, a majority of the international students in U.S. higher education has been from India. Because of the significant cultural gap between India and the United States, Indian students encounter adjustment difficulties in the host country. To overcome such difficulties, students apply several coping strategies, which in turn lead to a transformational change among them. The transitional adjustment literature on the experiences of the students from India has been very limited. This lack of attention to Indian students, despite the fact that their percentage has been increasing in the U.S. higher education, is an issue of concern and, therefore, calls for research. To achieve this goal, a phenomenological data analysis process presented by Moustakas's modified version of Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen's method was utilized. Data analysis generated the following themes: individual experiences, situational experiences, coping strategies/suggestions, and personal transformation. Under individual experiences, the participants described their experiences in the United States, and differences between their expectations and experiences in relation to Nurture University and general living. Under the situational experiences, study participants described the differences between being a student in the United States versus in India, and the differences between the academic systems of United States and that of India. Further, the application of imaginative variation in step 7 of the data analysis led to the identification of two sub-themes under the theme individual experiences: individual factors that helped in adjustment and individual factors that hindered adjustment in the United States. Sub-themes identified under situational experiences were situational factors that helped in adjustment and situational factors that hindered adjustment in the United States. This study has implications for the home country, host country, adult education, higher education, policy, theory and future research. To ensure the trustworthiness of the data, qualitative procedures such as Epoche, thick descriptions of the phenomenon of transition and member checks, were employed.

Threat management of water distribution systems is essential for protecting consumers. In a contamination event, different strategies may be implemented to protect public health, including flushing the system through opening hydrants or isolating the contaminant by manipulating valves. To select the most effective options for responding to a contamination threat, the location and loading profile of the source of the contaminant should be considered. These characteristics can be identified by utilizing water quality data from sensors that have been strategically placed in a water distribution system. A simulation-optimization approach is described here to solve the inverse problem of source characterization, by coupling an evolutionary computation-based search with a water distribution system model. The solution of this problem may reveal, however, that a set of non-unique sources exists, where sources with significantly different locations and loading patterns produce similar concentration profiles at sensors. The problem of non-uniqueness should be addressed to prevent the misidentification of a contaminant source and improve response planning. This paper aims to address the problem of non-uniqueness through the use of Niched Co-Evolution Strategies (NCES). NCES is an evolutionary algorithm designed to identify a specified number of alternative solutions that are maximally different in their decision vectors, which are source characteristics for the water distribution problem. NCES is applied to determine the extent of non-uniqueness in source characterization for a virtual city, Mesopolis, with a population of approximately 150,000 residents. Results indicate that NCES successfully identifies non-uniqueness in source characterization and provides alternative sources of contamination. The solutions found by NCES assist in making decisions about response actions. Once alternative sources are identified, each source can be modeled to determine where the vulnerable areas of the system are, indicating the areas where response actions should be implemented.

This case study examined coping strategies and support systems utilized by 33 children of Hispanic migrant farmworkers from Fabens, Texas. The youth participated in the summer 2011 Creative Kids Incorporated Migrant Program in El Paso, Texas. The study examined how socio-ecological factors, specifically within Creative Kids Inc., help youth to cope with risk factors and aid in the resilience process. This study applied both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative portion consisted of 12 in-depth program participant interviews, ages 9-15, and observations at Creative Kids Inc. The quantitative portion consisted of a survey that utilized the Brief Adolescent Life Event Scale, the Children Coping Strategies Checklist, and the Multi-Dimensional Support Scale. Thirty-four surveys were distributed, and 33 surveys were analyzed from program participants ages 10-15. The study found the youth were affected by various risk factors within their environment, such as poverty, separation from family, and school. When adapting to stress, most youth utilized behavioral-based distraction strategies (i.e., listening to music and playing outside) and cognitive-based avoidance strategies (i.e., not thinking about their problem) to cope. The youth did not use active coping strategies as often as avoidance strategies. However, some support seeking strategies were mentioned. Most often, youth sought support from parents and older siblings. While the youth sought support from their teachers, it was mainly in regard to school work. Similarly, youth sought support from Creative Kids Inc. staff concerning their art projects. Families were beneficial to youth in the coping process, because they provided youth with opportunities for distracting activities as well as some support. Although the youth strongly enjoyed participating in the Migrant Program, they rarely sought support for personal stressors or problems from the staff. Yet, the program provided youth with opportunities to participate in distracting activities, express their feelings, and seek out support. Despite the lack of literature on children of Hispanic migrant farmworkers and the factors that influence their resilience, this study provided an in-depth description of how they cope with daily life events, what support systems are available to assist in overcoming risks, and provided a basis for understanding the role of support systems in facilitating resiliency among this adolescent group.

Abstract Peter Drucker (1999), a management master, points out that in the organizations of the 21st century, the most valuable assets of an organization are knowledge workers and the productivity of knowledge workers. Koch (1998) points out that exerting ¡§80/20 Principle¡¨ to find out core customers, investing resource and service on those rare mass-customers who can create most profits, and cultivating the relationship of long-term strategies are the effective ways to increase profits instead of continuously looking for new customers. Telecom industry plays a very important role in the development of Taiwan economy. It is really a crucial issue for this case corporation to focus on how to keep mass-customers in the competitive environment. The cost strengths of customer loyalty come from the factors of men and the outcomes of the long-term mutual interaction between customers and employees. The input of outstanding human resource is the main indicator deciding whether an enterprise possesses competitive strengths or not. The employees serving enterprise customers are the front-line representatives of this case corporation approaching enterprise customers. Outwardly, these employees represent their company, and it goes without saying that the quality and work performance of the employees are very important to the enterprise. The subject of the research is the present knowledge workers serving in the department of enterprise customers in this case corporation. Through the theories and concepts of literature review, the research uses individual attributes and knowledge workers¡¦ management strategies as the independent variables and core competencies as the intermediary variables to explore the relationship among individual attributes, knowledge workers¡¦ management strategies, core competencies and work performance. Among the totally mailed 603 questionnaires, there are 412 effective and available, and the effective return rate of questionnaires is 68.33%. After factor analysis, credibility analysis, variance analysis, correlation analysis and multi-regression analysis, here is the result of the research: 1. There is a positive significance among the research variables of the knowledge workers¡¦ management strategies, the degree of the possession of core competencies and work performance. 2. There is a positive significance between the knowledge workers¡¦ management strategies and the degree of the possession of core competencies: for example, ¡§team encouragement¡¨ has the positive effect on ¡§interpersonal competency,¡¨ ¡§attitude competency,¡¨ and ¡§profession competency,¡¨ and ¡§company learning commitment¡¨ has the effect on ¡§profession competency.¡¨ 3. There is a positive significance between the degree of the possession of core competencies and work performance: for example, ¡§interpersonal competency¡¨ and ¡§profession competency¡¨ significantly have the positive effect on ¡§task performance,¡¨ and ¡§interpersonal competency,¡¨ ¡§attitude competency¡¨ and ¡§profession competency¡¨ all significantly have the positive effect on ¡§contextual performance.¡¨ 4. There is a positive significance between the knowledge workers¡¦ management strategies and work performance: for example, ¡§knowledge leadership¡¨ and ¡§company learning commitment¡¨ significantly have the positive effect on ¡§task performance,¡¨ and ¡§knowledge leadership¡¨ and ¡§team encouragement¡¨ significantly have the positive effect on ¡§contextual performance.¡¨ 5. The knowledge workers¡¦ management strategies have an influence on work performance through the intermediary variables, core competencies: for example, ¡§company learning commitment¡¨ indirectly influences ¡§task performance¡¨ through the intermediary variables ¡§profession competency¡¨ and ¡§team encouragement¡¨ indirectly influence ¡§contextual performance¡¨ through the intermediary variables ¡§interpersonal competency,¡¨ ¡§attitude competency¡¨ and ¡§profession competency.¡¨

In Taiwan, prior to the petroleum industry liberalization starting from 1990, the whole petroleum market was highly regulated and monopoly. Since 90s, the first private owned gas station was built in 1997; the Formosa Petrochemical Corporation went public in September, 2000; the Petroleum Administration Law was implemented on October 13th, 2001; and almost all famous international petroleum businesses had plans to establish branches in Taiwan. As the result, the monopoly market gradually became more and more competitive during that period. The China Petroleum Corporation, one of the state-owned enterprises, was the only price leader in the market, and currently still has absolute influence. This research, therefore, is focus on how CPC adjusting its business strategies and marketing management while facing the intensive competition in this liberalizing market. The main findings are as follows: 1. Since the Formosa Petrochemical Corporation and other international petroleum companies joined into this competitive market, CPC has actively adopted much adjustment. However, the company and all staffs must try harder if they plan to keep 70% market share. 2. For future competition, CPC has adopted not only some defensive tactics to keep the current market shares, but also many aggressive strategies so that the company can continuously penetrate, expand, and diversify the new market . Moreover, CPC has asked its staffs to provide their best service in order to secure the client base and to improve the competence. In fact, those good business strategies really helped CPC increase its total sales and profits; or keep its current market shares at least. However, CPC still need to deploy some other marketing approaches such as to keep its cost down, to better off its service, and to train qualified staffs, so that the company can advance its competitive preference and diversify its marketing strategies as well. Keywords: petroleum industry liberalization, the Petroleum Administration Law, business strategies, and market share

Health pursuing is one of the most important and common aspirations of people in a modern society. However, what is their concept about health? What are the conditions of their cognitions about being healthy? As people¡¦s income has increased, nutritious diet supplements (generally called health foods) have become a popular product category. But, while types of health foods in the market are numerous and competition between the different products are fierce, how do consumers make their decision, facing these various choices? How do Taiwanese people understand and acquaint with particular types of health foods? How do they switch between them, if there is a need for switch among the particular products. The current research tried to develop a measurement scale for the concept of health suitable for Taiwanese people based on their daily life, using health confidence, health dieting, living adaptation, and social interaction as the four fundamental dimensions. This scale is different from those health concept measurement developed based on the traditional medical perspective. The major testing products of this research are ¡§Tong-Chong-Sia-Tsau¡¨ (Cordyceps Sinensis for medical terminology) and ¡§Ling-Zhi,¡¨ two of new categories of Chinese health supplements developed from special plants. Two other categories of health foods product, ¡§traditional Chinese herb medicine¡¨ and ¡§Western vitamin pills,¡¨ are also included in the observation of category switching. Adoption of innovation is an important issue in the buying behavior research of health foods. The current research developed a measurement scale of innovation adoption, adopting many measuring items from Kirton (1976). Regarding the choice behavior, this research observed and analyzed both ¡§need for cognition¡¨ and ¡§need for change¡¨ aspects, referring to Wood and Swait¡¦s (2002) choice research. The consumer samples of this research were collected from two groups of people in Taiwan: travel agents and land administration agents. The number of valid sample was 414. The relationship between health foods buying behavior and the demographic variables were as well analyzed and discussed for the valid sample.