This thesis presents a method for combining GPU programming with traditional programming to create a fluid simulation based watercolor tool for artists. This application provides a graphical interface and a canvas upon which artists can create simulated watercolors in real time. The GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit, is an effcient and highly parallel processor located on the graphics card of a computer; GPU programming is touted as a way to improve performance in graphics and non–graphics applications. The effectiveness of this method in speeding up large, general purpose programs, however, is found here to be disappointing. In a small application with minimal CPU/GPU interaction, theoretical speedups of 10 times maybe achieved, but with the limitations of communication speed between the GPU and the CPU, gains are slight when this method is used in conjunction with traditional programming.

Background Promotional techniques are used to make prospective customers aware of products, to whet their appetites, and stimulate demand; they also provide information to help customers decide. In the promotional process the selection and the use of the tools is crucial. Nowadays the tourism industry is extremely challenging. Tourism has evolved during the latter half of the 20th century from a marginal and locally significant activity to a widely dispersed economic giant. Many aspects of tourism promotion have been developed these last years to attract new customers. Purpose The purpose of this study is to outline and analyse the use and the construction of three promotional tools (advertising, Public Relations, printed materials), and find out their goals. These three promotional tools are represented by TV commercials, press releases and brochure. Method This study was conducted using the case study method. It is based on primary data. These data are coming from a questionnaire, from the internet and from one printed material. The applied theoretical frames of references are about the use and goals of the three promotional tools and also about models for the analysis of the construction of the latter. Conclusion By answering the research questions this thesis presents first the comparison results between the frames and the data concerning the use of the three promotional tools. Then the main aspects of the construction of the tools are showed. And finally their goals coming from the frames and the data are presented and compared.

The aim of my thesis was to do a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of an average thread tap that is manufactured by Dormer Tools AB, and to create a practical model that the company can use in order to study other thread taps from an environmental perspective. The method of LCA is used to investigate the environmental effects of a product during its life cycle. This is a gate-to-grave analysis with focus on steel and thread tap manufacturing, coating procedure, use, waste management and transports. Three common coating types were compared separately. Steel manufacturing answers for the highest energy and raw material consumption under the life cycle of the thread tap. Its emissions contribute to global warming, acidification and eutrophication above others. Transport emissions create the most photochemical oxidants (Los Angeles smog). The study has certain limitations, nevertheless I think that it fulfills its aims, and it can – along with the model – be used as the basis of more environmentally adapted product choices at Dormer Tools.

A qualitative research was conducted to better understand the communication process connected with organizing musical festival for mass audience and the tools used to gain successful communication. Based on data collected by an interview with organizers and data found on the festival web site, theory about communication models of PR Smith and tools used in communication process, described by Kotler, were compared. One of the biggest music festivals in Europe – an Hungarian festival: the Sziget – has been chosen to evaluate its communication. The findings show that, in terms of communication model, the company chooses the most appropriate to reach mass audience model. Mass communication model with small modifications seem to be the most appropriate for such a big organization like musical event. Communication tools used in case of a big festival also should concern about reaching mass audience. In order to do that, the tools focussed on more personal communication, such as direct marketing or personal selling can be given up in favour of tools such as advertising, publicity and PR or sales promotion, which give possibility to reach bigger audience in shorter period of time.

Wildland fire fighting is complex due to climatic variation, risk and uncertainty, and the proximity of human and resource values. Information about fire environments, resource availability and logistics, fire behavior, and values at risk are important issues fire managers must consider in allocating scarce resources. Improved information thus, has value in reducing risk and costs and damages. Geospatial technology, which includes remote sensing tools, geographic positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS) and various maps are widely used in wildland fire management. My research evaluates geospatial tools in three different ways: their role in risk reduction, their effect on wildland fire costs and damages, and wildland fire managers perceived costs and benefits.<p> A theoretical model was developed to analyze the role of geospatial tools in reducing the risk. Risk-averse fire managers were found to use more geospatial technologies compared to those who did not incorporate risk in their decision making, resulting in a creation of value for these technologies. A simultaneous equation system of fires was estimated using the two-stage and the three-stage least squares estimation methods to examine the impact of geospatial tools on fire size, cost and damages. The effect of geospatial technology on fire size was significant in the Full Response Zone. Fire size was positively related to drought and duff moisture codes. Damages and cost of suppression were not affected significantly by the use of digitized maps. The survey of wildland fire managers revealed that geospatial tools are useful in integrating information and provide more clarity, flexibility and accuracy in decision-making. It was also discovered in the survey that geospatial tools are most commonly used when multiple fires are burning at the same time and threatening high resource values. Overall, the findings from this research indicated that risk-averse fire managers use geospatial tools more intensively; that maps play a significant role in reducing the fire size in the Full Response Zone, and, finally, the fire managers view that these technologies are more economically efficient in the Full Response Zone makes a case for more investment in developing and employing them on fires. Record keeping and data collection as well as understanding the human element in terms of risk aversion will be important for future studies and for adopting new technology and allocating resources efficiently.

Artifacts found within the context of a shipwreck offer valuable insight into specific events surrounding a vessel’s journey and also have broader implications regarding the time period of the ship’s sinking. A collection of iron objects, excavated from the wreckage of a late Hellenistic ship carrying marble from the quarries at Proconnesus to the site of Claros, provides details of the implements vital to this ship’s passage. It was necessary that the completely corroded and encrusted iron artifacts undergo months of conservation, in the form of replication, stabilization of the iron where it survived, and restoration before they could be cataloged and researched thoroughly. The largest of the iron concretions was found to contain an anchor belonging to the ship. Being found on the same ship with wooden composite anchors, the iron anchor excavated at Kızılburun represents an important step in the transition in the use of wooden and lead composite anchors to their eventual replacement by anchors made solely of iron. The remaining identified objects comprise a collection of tools as well as three fasteners, all of which provide insight into the necessary equipment of an ancient wooden ship. Within the scope of this thesis, the conservation of each iron object is detailed, and a discussion of the implements enhances the understanding of their use aboard a seagoing vessel. Further research into similar objects and the development of each tool type offers insight into their value to the ancient seaman. Finally, a catalog of the artifacts is included, in order to provide measurements and technical drawings so that perhaps the currently unidentified artifacts can be compared to examples from other sites.

Knowledge plays an increasingly important role in business, company, and organization,it is the ability for organization to learn and assimilate new knowledge in orderto make plans or business progresses. However, when comes to the tacit knowledge,in most cases, as Polanyi (1969) said ”we can know more than we can tell”, whichmeans in our daily lives, most of the knowledge stored in our brain can not be expressedout to others easily, we call this kind of knowledge ”tacit”. Therefore, tacitknowledge holds most part of our knowledge - and at the same time - harder to identifyand share.There is an popular approach called ’Community of Practice (CoP)’ which aimsat creating and sharing knowledge through informal practicing and learning. Thus,in this study, a qualitative research is desired to be made on the approach of communityof practice as well as its effects on tacit knowledge sharing. The purpose of thisstudy is to understand the pattern of sharing tacit knowledge among communitieswith social communication technologies (Tencent QQ) embedded, and to explorethe mechanisms of generating and transferring tacit knowledge with ”community ofpractice”.

Wildland fire fighting is complex due to climatic variation, risk and uncertainty, and the proximity of human and resource values. Information about fire environments, resource availability and logistics, fire behavior, and values at risk are important issues fire managers must consider in allocating scarce resources. Improved information thus, has value in reducing risk and costs and damages. Geospatial technology, which includes remote sensing tools, geographic positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS) and various maps are widely used in wildland fire management. My research evaluates geospatial tools in three different ways: their role in risk reduction, their effect on wildland fire costs and damages, and wildland fire managers perceived costs and benefits.<p> A theoretical model was developed to analyze the role of geospatial tools in reducing the risk. Risk-averse fire managers were found to use more geospatial technologies compared to those who did not incorporate risk in their decision making, resulting in a creation of value for these technologies. A simultaneous equation system of fires was estimated using the two-stage and the three-stage least squares estimation methods to examine the impact of geospatial tools on fire size, cost and damages. The effect of geospatial technology on fire size was significant in the Full Response Zone. Fire size was positively related to drought and duff moisture codes. Damages and cost of suppression were not affected significantly by the use of digitized maps. The survey of wildland fire managers revealed that geospatial tools are useful in integrating information and provide more clarity, flexibility and accuracy in decision-making. It was also discovered in the survey that geospatial tools are most commonly used when multiple fires are burning at the same time and threatening high resource values. Overall, the findings from this research indicated that risk-averse fire managers use geospatial tools more intensively; that maps play a significant role in reducing the fire size in the Full Response Zone, and, finally, the fire managers view that these technologies are more economically efficient in the Full Response Zone makes a case for more investment in developing and employing them on fires. Record keeping and data collection as well as understanding the human element in terms of risk aversion will be important for future studies and for adopting new technology and allocating resources efficiently.

During the latest ten years, development in the industry of machine tools has been growing rapidly in our country. Since industry automation is highly demanded, the study about CNC is therefore extensively proceeded. Owing to request for higher quality, the machine tool must achieve the high speed and high precision. There are three factors in precise motion control : the accuracy of reference command, the design of servo control structure, and machine structure. However the part of machine structure attains to maturity. The design of the control system need to include good motion control and correct reference command. NURBS can represent analytic curves and free-form curves accurately and easily. Cross-coupled control is able to adjust the dynamic system of each axis to reduce the contour errors. It is expected to improve control performance in terms of contour errors by combine NURBS reference command and the cross-coupled control framework. Keywords¡Gmachine tool, NURBS, cross-coupled control

Recently, due to globalization and Taiwan¡¦s participation in WTO, more and more Taiwan companies have established branches across the world to seize the trend. However, in order to compete with multinational companies in the global coverage, how to recruit enough staff, manage and place employees to fit strategy of team and organization¡¦s goal across the world is the key assignment of human resource department among multi-national companies. Analysis the procedure of case company to apply changed by 1. Detail research on the existed papers and cases of implantation of competency system with human resource system combined with analysis them erasures of case company to apply the implantation of competency system, such as customize the impanation model, apply implantation of competency system into recruit system , and the actual ways and steps to fit implantation of competency into company. Hope this paper would provide reference of companies basing on implantation of competency to set up their human resource structure. 2.When Taiwan companies entering global market, it is important to understand the effect of case company to export recruit system basing on implantation competency system. This part not only evaluates the performance of implantation of competency system by comparing each key employee in parent company and their counterparts in branch, but also provide experience for other similar companies. New findings have been concluded in this research as follows: The key element for human resource system applies implantation of competency model successfully within company is the support of high level managers. Meanwhile, a well established recruit procedure based on implantation of competency system did help the case company to save cost, which includes decreasing recruit cost, decreasing the turn over rate of new staff, and raising the percentage of hired staff reporting to the case company. However, there are still problems ahead for the case company to apply the implantation of competency system: 1. So far, Taiwan is the only model established for the implantation of competency system. 2. The time of implantation of competency system is short. The effective of implantation of competency system could not be proved due to the fact that the system did not fit in performance system of the case company. 3. So far only computer system is finished, it is a long way to go to base on implantation of competency system to interviews. However, with the continuity of establishment of implantation of competency system within case company and the extensive application of such system in other industries via the experience of the case company, we believe that this topic worth further academic research to help Taiwanese companies to smooth the process of marching global market.