Abstract not available

Gender research throughout the last two decades has positioned sport as one of the central sites in the social production of masculinities. In particular, body contact, confrontational sports have been identified as central to the reproduction of a dominant but problematic form of masculinity, typically known as hegemonic masculinity. Whether it is through participation, opposition, resistance, complicity or media consumption, contact sports have been identified as constructing individual understandings of masculinity as well as contributing to the continued marginalization and subordination of other types of masculinities. Researchers working within schools have also linked rugby to similarly negative understandings of masculinities. The majority of these school based studies have been conducted in countries where contact sports are traditionally respected or in schools where rugby is tied to traditional and institutionalized understandings of masculinity. As yet little attention has been paid to boys who play rugby in countries or schools where rugby is not tied to traditional and institutionalized understandings of masculinity. As a New Zealand teacher working in an American school, in Taiwan, I set out to examine the rugby experiences of high school boys and to investigate the influence that rugby has on their understanding of masculinities. My study employed in-depth interviews with seven boys. Cognizant of the fact that the majority of gender based sport research has utilised Connell's theory of hegemonic masculinity, I adopted a 'Foucauldian method' to analyse the data. In doing so it was my intention to contribute to the field of sport and gender studies by utilising an alternative perspective instead of creating repetitive and redundant research which could lead to some problems being explored exhaustively. My main findings revealed a number of dominant discourses surrounding and constituting rugby within the American School of Taiwan. These included discourses of rugby as a masculine sport, as a foreign/western sport, and as a low status sport. Drawing upon these discourses I examined how the participants' gendered subjectivities were influenced by their rugby participation. The results revealed that within the general context of the school, rugby players were generally regarded as low status male athletes. However, within the western cultural group of students, rugby players were regarded as high status male athletes. This study contributes to gender and sport studies by suggesting that contact sports such as rugby need not always contribute to structured and hierarchical understandings of masculinities.

Zugl.: Passau, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

Obesity is a major public health problem and is a risk factor for hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. In addition, the prevalence of obesity appears to be increasing worldwide, making it important to determine the nature and extent of obesity in populations at risk. The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of body mass index (BMI) in Taiwanese adults 19 through 44 years old. Independent variables from the Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NAHSIT) included biological factors (age and sex), dietary factors (energy intake and fat intake), environmental factors (educational level, residence area, and nutrition knowledge), and lifestyle factors (leisure time physical activity, smoking habits, and alcohol consumption). Results indicated that nearly 40% of the 1,182 adult survey participants were obese or overweight, by Taiwanese standards. Regression analysis found that significant predictors of BMI were residence area, educational level, and age. Taiwanese adults more likely to have higher BMIs were from the mountainous area, had less education. An increase in ten years of age was related to an average increase in BMI of 1.13 kg/m�� (p<0.0001), controlling for other variables. These three factors accounted for 21% of the variance in all adults (15% of the variance in men, and 28% of the variance in women). In addition, smoking was a predictor of higher BMI in males, and alcohol intake was a predictor for higher BMI in females. Energy intake, fat intake, leisure time physical activity, and nutrition knowledge were not significant predictors for either males or females. The findings from this study will help public health professionals identify target areas and program needs to reduce obesity in Taiwan, particularly in the mountainous areas where the prevalence of obesity/overweight was seventy percent. / Graduation date: 2004

Nowadays, the swift augmentation of Indonesia¡¦s economy is projected to maintain well into the subsequently decade. Simultaneously, the nation is still experiencing a lack in managerial and professional personnel. The gist of this study was to investigate the purpose of study abroad and to analyze the factors that affect to the career choice of Indonesian students in Taiwan as example. This research was expected to know the directions of the Indonesian students (samples= 115 Indonesian students; population= 615 Indonesian students in Taiwan) in the future. The research was done by using the survey method. Initially the descriptive statistics was used and frequency distributions for questions were established. The result of this research was satisfied the purpose of study when it found out many factors and conditions of working had influenced on career choice of Indonesian students.

The recognition policy of the United States toward Taiwan has been rather consistent in its ambivalence. That is, the United States has chosen a foreign policy route of non-recognition while at the same time discouraging the government of Taiwan not to disturb the stable, but sometimes volatile waters of the Taiwan Strait by declaring independence. This policy of course, engendered by the United States apprehension that such a political declaration would provoke Taiwan¡¦s economic and military power adjoining neighbor; the People¡¦s Republic of China. This dissertation looks at the inconsistent recognition policies of the United States toward the Republic of China and dispenses with the cause of these inconsistencies, the political process and analysis, and analyzes what is the recognition policies of the United States based on the laws of the United States at the state and federal judicial levels. In this research I also examine international laws concerning recognition absent the political process and determine if they, too, correspond with the laws of the United States of if they are in fact totally different and based on a different sort of legal criteria. Absent a strong and coherent legal standard in the international realm, I will also look at how other international institutions and organizations like INGOs either reinforce or weaken the rule of law when it comes to their interaction with states and the issue of recognizing nation-states. Finally, in addition to whether international law and INGOs adhere to or are guided by the rule of law, I propose that if one is not willing to use a legal standard to bestow recognition, then perhaps an intermediary position is the answer. Using as a starting point the agreed upon definition of what is a state is by the Montevideo Conference, I propose a rather simple criteria to determine if recognition should be granted by nation-states by using a non-political and a non-legal means.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs), are widely distributed in the environment. Several studies have demonstrated that these pollutants will cause potential impacts such as carcinogenic and mutagenic for human health. In this study, four different types of sampling stations were chosen. Two of the sampling sites are located in Kaohsiung city, which is an industrialized city with densely population in southern Taiwan (KHU and KHC). The other sampling sites are in a rural coastal area (KT) and an offshore island (LY), respectively. We determined the concentrations of PCBs and PBDEs in the atmosphere to identify the spatial and temporal distributions of PCBs and PBDEs in southern Taiwan. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal components analysis (PCA) of congener-specific composition of PCBs and PBDEs were performed with the commercial products to investigate the relationship of regional signatures and possible pollution sources. Finally, back trajectory analysis was undertaken to gain a better understanding of long-distance transport contribution to the studied area. The concentrations of £UPCBs in the ambient air ranged from 9.51 to 482 pg m-3, with an average concentration of 162¡Ó155 pg m-3. The mean PCB concentrations in gas and particle phase were 159¡Ó153 pg m-3 and 3.04¡Ó2.38 pg m-3, respectively. The concentrations of £UPBDEs in the ambient air ranged from 3.42 to 166 pg m-3, with an average concentration of 31.7¡Ó37.3 pg m-3. The average PBDE concentrations in gas and particle phase were 7.22¡Ó6.50 pg m-3 and 23.7¡Ó33.4 pg m-3, respectively. Comparison of the total PCB and PBDE concentrations from the four sampling sites showed that the total PCB and PBDE concentrations at the Kaohsiung urban site (KHU) and Kaohsiung coastal site (KHC) were higher than those at a rural coastal site (Kenting, KT) and an offshore island site (Lanyu, LY), suggesting that densely population and heavy industrial park may be the major contributor of PCBs and PBDEs . Results from HCA, PCA and compositional patterns of PCBs indicate that offshore island site (Lanyu, LY) was different from KHU, KHC and KT. Lower chlorinated congeners (dichlorobiphenyls to hexachlorobiphenyls) were predominant in the gas phase. Since most of the lower molecular weight congeners were below the detection limit, the total PCB concentrations were found at much lower level in LY sampling sites. In addition, a significantly higher proportion of high-chlorinated congeners, was observed at LY, suggesting that there may be local pollution sources in this area. Results from HCA, PCA and compositional patterns of PBDEs indicate that the samples from February and October were dominated by BDE-209, while the samples from July were dominated by BDE-71, BDE-47 and BDE-99, suggesting that this might be due to the significantly low concentrations of suspended particles (PM10) in July. Since much higher temperature was observed in July, these lower brominated congeners may be released much easier from the sediment, water, and brominated-containing products due to smaller molecular size and higher vapor pressure. Moreover, debromination of the deca-BDEs had been observed in the environment. Several studies have shown that photolytic debromination of BDE-209 is possible pathway for the formation of lower brominated-BDEs. TEQ was used to determine the level of pollution for environment and human health. In this study area, the TEQ ranged from 0.145 to 0.878 pg-TEQ m-3, with an average TEQ of 0.0004¡Ó0.0003 pg-TEQ m-3 in gas-phase of ambient air. PCB114 was observed to be the predominant congener in this study.

ABSTRACT Sipuncula is a group of unsegmented, coelomate, bilaterally symmetrical and wormlike marine deposit-feeding benthic macro-invertebrates. They are abundant along the intertidal habitats and around 150 species have been recorded worldwide. Sipunculans likely accumulate many anthropogenic contaminants by feeding on the contaminated sediments or benthos, and since they are edible marine species and have long been used in Southwest Pacific cuisine, these contaminants may transfer into the food chain and affect the public health of humans.Trace elements and PAHs are the most common contaminants that appear in the coastal areas worldwide. These contaminants lead to losses in oceanic yield and may hazardous effects on health when they enter the food chain. The previous studies of sipunculans along the coast of Taiwan were mostly focused on the taxonomy and distribution of the species living on the hard -ground habitat (rubble), one of the purposes of this study is aiming at the sipunculans on the seagrass beds and wetland soft-ground habitat for species diversity, population dynamic and ecological related research. Among 10 native sipunculans species, Sipunculus nudus is the dominant species living at the segrass bed and wetland in Taiwan. Siangshan wetland locates at the area of industrial pollution and S. nudus here is a species with aquatic economy, but is known limitedly of its population and environmental physiology. Therefore, the other purpose of this research is to investigate the S. nudus population in this wetland and analyze the trace elements: arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), and zinc (Zn) and the organic pollutants: PAHs, in order to understand the bioaccumulation of S. nudus in the above two types of soft-substrate regarding the pollutants. The main results of this study are as follows: (1) This study represents a pioneering investigation in Taiwan regarding the species diversity of sipunculans on the seagrass meadow soft-ground sediment, which describes the species and their morphological characteristics. A total of 42 specimens 10 sipunculan species belonging to 3 families were identified. (2) It is the first time that S. nudus is realized as the dominant species in these soft habitats. Because of its cultivation potential, its population dynamics and reproductive cycle in Siangshan wetland were studied. The population size of S. nudus in this area is 0.965¡Ó 0.46 ind.m-2 and the sex ratio is around 1:1; the reproductive period is from April to September in the year with the peak reproductive period from May to August; the body length of matured individual is over 11cm. (3) This is the first report in Taiwan on the trace elements in sipunculan and their surrounding sediments. The bioaccumulation characteristics of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), and zinc (Zn) were analyzed and compared in two sipunculan species, S. nudus and Siphonosoma vastum, which were collected from seagrass beds and wetlands in Taiwan. Both sipunculans in the these soft habitats had a high Cu bioaccumulation mechanism. Multivariate analysis, principle component analysis, and partial least squares for discriminant analysis of trace element levels and bioaccumulation factors were used to distinguish the element distributions that corresponded to the two habitats (seagrass beds and wetlands). Different levels of certain trace elements in these two sipunculan species may result not only from the environmental factors of various habitats but also from the accumulation characteristics of various species. The As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, and Zn concentrations were markedly lower in sipunculan than in other invertebrates from the adjacent polluted regions. (4) This is the first report on the accumulation situation of PAHs in different body tissues (tentacle, nephridium, intestine, and muscle) of S. nudus in Taiwan. It was found that the smaller individuals had higher amount of PAHs with higher percentage of low-ring PAHs and they were mostly concentrated in the nephridium. This study provides the bioaccumulation pattern of PAH in the tentacle, nephridium, intestine, and muscle of S. nudus. The logKow and logBAF parameters show that S. nudus may excrete or decompose high-ring PAHs via biotransformation. By comparing the t-PAH of S. nudus with that of the surrounding substrate and invertebrates along the coasts of other countries, the t-PAH content in the muscle of S. nudus is lower than the sediment and the invertebrates. As a result, I suggest removing the internal organs and utilizing the muscle portion as good to reduce the uptake and accumulation of PAHs from the sipunculans.

Based on the taxonomic system of Platnick in 2004, a total of 11 species of Myrmarachne are recognized from Taiwan. There are 4 species described as new species: M. exilisata sp. nov., M. lanyuensis sp. nov., M. luteopalpis sp. nov., and M. laticorseleta sp. nov., and 3 new records to Taiwan: M. annamita Zabka., 1985, M. edwardsi Berry, Beatty and Proszynski, 1996 and M. kiboschensis Lessert, 1925. And the species published in the past from Taiwan are recovered and redescribed in this study, namely, Myrmarachne formosana (Saito, 1933), Myrmarachne formosicola Strand, 1910 and Myrmarachne inermichelis B&#x00F6;senberg and Strand, 1906 and Myrmarachne magna (Saito, 1933), and female of Myrmarachne formosana (Saito, 1933) and Myrmarachne formosicola Strand, 1910 are described and illustrated first time. Type specimen of M. formosicola Strand, 1910 was re-examined. We treat Pyroderes formosanus Matsumura, 1911 as a doubtful species. A taxonomic key of Myrmarachne from Taiwan, diagnoses, descriptions, quantitative character values, illustrations, locality records, and distribution maps are presented for the 11 recognized species.

China's economic growth rate soars continuously in the future, what the small and medium-sized enterprises of Taiwan strengthen and carry on in China's Mainland one after another is thrown money, intaglio printing expand very much rapidly not passing most early at China's Mainland from in company, Taiwan of joint-venture, step forward about last direction Taiwan the small and medium-sized enterpriseses running. To the main shaft of intaglio printing industry, this research is dividing with SWOT analyse it for the structure, probe into and find out about the difficulty faced of small and medium-sized enterprises of Taiwan, and successful course and key factor analyse, and combine and propose discovering and suggestion , for wanting to invest in the Taiwan traders of the mainland and intaglio printing correctly in the future. 1. Make analysis and offer the scheme solved by the human resources , production management and investment environment. 2. In the face of doing the economic idea that E turn environment into the main fact in the future society , economy and culture in the 21st century. Offer investors' suggestion of to Mid- and small-scale enterprise Taiwan to the operation on China's Mainland WTO market.