Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Stair Chair'

Wood inhabiting fungi oposes a great problem for preservation of wooden surfaces everywhere, being the main problem of economic losses of wooden products.

A reference collection consisting of 9 different genus constituting of 21 different strains of wood-inhabiting fungi was used for identification of unknown species of mould and blue stain fungi on wood. The fungus DNA from the samples was isolated from malt extract agar. PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) was conducted on rDNA ITS1 and ITS2 regions for amplification of the DNA. The 21 samples were collected to a reference collection for identification of unknown species of fungi on wooden field samples using PCR and T-RFLP (Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism).

PCR-based methods, sequencing and T-RFLP were proven to be simple and

accurate methods for detection and identification of fungi in their early stage.

This thesis investigates the way to implement a valuable e-commerce solution. With the growing importance of information technologies in business practices, more and more companies are adopting e-commerce as a selling and ordering process. However, depending on the market environment, the level of success of the implementation may differ. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine what are the conditions required for a successful B2B e-commerce implementation in different market contexts.

Theories related to the impact of markets' contexts on e-commerce, the business process, and the drivers and enablers of e-commerce have been considered. Thereafter the current situation of Star Laundry Solutions (SLS) has been studied. The context of different markets – France, United Kingdom, Turkey - where they have dealers, the business process drivers of implementations and success factors of a valuable e-commerce solution have been investigated. The result of the empirical studied are analyzed in comparison with the theoretical findings. Through this method, the main research question of the thesis, namely “What are the necessary conditions to implement a value-adding e-commerce solution in different market contexts?” can be answered.

Several conditions have been identified in order to succeed the implementation and bring value to the different players along the supply chain, from the manufacturer to the end-customer. The market should first answer different criteria. Further, future users of the web solution must support the implementation, trust between parties must also emerge from the implementation, and additional information must be provided on the website such as product numbers (PNCs), products' availability and delivery times.

The provided recommendations of this thesis regarding the features of the web solution, the range of products that dealers and importers should be able to order online and the range of companies that should be allowed to use the web solution in Turkey.

Cette thèse analyse les enjeux du développement économique liés aux dynamiques des cours des matières premières en général et ceux du coton en particulier. Traditionnellement, les travaux s’inscrivant dans une optique de long terme questionnent la pertinence des spécialisations primaires des PMA. À moyen terme l’intérêt porte davantage sur l’instabilité dont les conséquences sont d’autant plus importantes que la dépendance des pays à l’exportation de tels produits est forte. Les enjeux s’articulent alors autour des modalités de régulation des marchés, du choix d'outils (publics ou marchands) pour la gestion des incertitudes, le tout dépendant de l’appréhension de l’instabilité comme un phénomène endogène ou exogène. Dans un contexte nouveau marqué par l’affirmation d’oligopoles de firmes, la segmentation du processus productif mondial, et la financiarisation des marchés de matières premières, nous proposons un cadre analytique permettant d’aborder différemment ces problématiques. Nos travaux montrent d’abord comment les approches du type chaînes globales de valeur peuvent être mobilisées pour mieux orienter les stratégies commerciales / industrielles des PMA. S’appuyant sur la notion de rationalité limitée dans le cadre de modèles de comportements hétérogènes, ils prouvent ensuite l’existence d’une forte composante endogène dans l’instabilité et par là même, l'inefficacité des seuls outils marchands. Au final, pour les pays africains producteurs de coton, il apparait qu’il reste possible de mettre ce produit au service d’une stratégie globale de développement. Cela passe par le recours à des mécanismes hybrides de gestion de l’instabilité, combiné au renforcement des dynamiques de coopération transfrontalières en vue d’une structuration de chaînes régionales de valeur
This thesis analyzes the economic development issues related to the medium and long-term dynamics of commodities prices in general and cotton prices in particular. Studies on the long-term perspective traditionally question the relevance of primary specializations of LDCs. In the medium term, the interest is relates to price instability for which the consequences are all the more important as countries’ dependency on the exports of such products becomes stronger. The stakes then revolve around market regulation modalities, and the choice of risk management tools (e.g. public or private interventions). These depend on the apprehension of price fluctuations as a phenomenon arising from endogenous or exogenous market factors. In a new economical context influenced by the growing importance of oligopolistic firms, a segmentation of the productive process and the financialization of commodity markets, we address differently these issues through a new analytical framework. The proposed analysis first shows how approaches such as the ones related to global value chains are more adapted to tackle industrial/commercial policies in commodity dependent LDCs. Second, in a context of heterogeneous behavioral models, we rely on the concept of bounded rationality to show the presence of a strong endogenous component in instability. Thus, it proves the inefficiency of private interventions to counter instability. Considering these findings in the case of African cotton producers, we conclude that it remains possible to incorporate the commodity in a global development strategy. But this involves the use of hybrid-type mechanisms (public-private) for managing uncertainty, combined with a reinforcement of cross-border cooperation dynamics in order to structure regional value chains

碩士
國立陽明大學
物理治療暨輔助科技學系
103
Background: According to Ministry of the Interior’s report on physically and mentally disabled citizens living and demand assessment survey and report of the senior citizen condition survey, persons with disabilities had great difficulties in climbing up and down stairs. Stair chair lifts are assistive products for vertical accessibility, and the performance and operation safety of the products should be regulated. However, current building regulations and national standards are not adequate for installing and using stair chair lifts. Few studies have investigated the safety and quality of stair chair lifts used in Taiwan. Purpose: To investigate the performance of stair chair lifts and its usage situation. Methods: A field study to investigate 30 cases of stair chair lifts installed in public building (n=23) and private houses (n=7) in Taiwan. The survey focused on installation, building structure and environment, the reason to install, and usage. Survey results were presented using descriptive statistics. Results: The rated speed of the stair chair lifts in the direction of travel shall be not greater than 0.15 m/s. All stair chair lifts surveyed in this study met with international standard. The rated load shall be not less than 115kg. The stair chair lifts installed in public buildings cases were 87.0% met with the international standard, and those in the private cases were 85.7% met with the international standard. Stair chair lifts shall have emergency/manual operation, survey results showed public buildings cases were 69.6% and the private cases were 85.7% met with standard. Some cases in public buildings (8%) had no safety belts. But, it showed only 2 cases (6.7%) met the building codes to install the rail of stair chair lifts within 10 cm to the wall and 50 cm above the ground. The reasons to install stair chair lifts in public buildings were for the needs of the elderly (61%) and of persons with mobility disabilities (40%), and for regulations and evaluation (26%). The reason to install stair chair lifts in the private houses was to solve the difficulties in climbing up and down stairs for family members (100%). Conclusion: The stair chair lifts specifications and function do not totally meet with international standard. The installation of most stair chair lifts violates the current building codes.

碩士
國立臺北科技大學
機電整合研究所
99
By comparing the rescue robot nowadays, so far most of the rescue robots are manipulated by single unit, which limits the robot’s ability deep into disaster area. Furthermore, lack of analytic results from changing position of robots and also short of standardized definition of terrain overcome, only by showing photos and videos for display is not as supportive as experimental data.Consequently, the aim of this study is to design a simple-and-compact tracked chain-type robot to overcome complex terrains in living. The developed tracked chain-type robot comprises of stood tracked robots ; through the use of chain-typed structure and 2-DOF (degree of freedom) joint design, the tracked chain-typed robot can overcome rough terrain easily by pushing, pulling elevating and twisty of tracked robot.In the stair climbing ability experiment, the analytic results from one, two and three units robots shows that maximal stairs height for respective robot are 24.6 mm, 94mm, and 217mm. Thus, through adjustments of joint angle of positioned robots, the subsequent experimental results display that climbing ability actually benefits from increasing the chained units and the results reassure the robot position settings and correct stair height during climbing.In the end, the experimental data proved that chain-type robot can climb stair in consistent with construction regulation that stair is 18 cm in height and 26cm in depth successfully.

碩士
國立中央大學
資訊管理學系在職專班
102
As the global travel market continues to grow, the development of information technology and e-commerce has led to the rise of the tourism industry. Hotel business owners have utilized the Internet to effectively expand marketing channels and customize the information and services for users with varied habitsin an attempt to influence consumer intentions. Also, the Web site is a global management tool. For the international hotel group who owns hotels around the world, how well the Web site provide the consistent nformation and services for worldwide travelers and interactwith worldwidecustomers determines the business opportunities and creates competitive advantages. Therefore, this research aims to study the website designs of global and domestic chain hotels in an attempt to understand how hotels create interactivity and maximize marketing performance through website design and themobile service and social media concept. Based on Baloglu &; Pekcan(2006), this study proposed interactivity, navigation, marketing service, functionality, innovativeness, and online processing to the seven dimensions of property assessments in the content analysis. The results of literature review and website content analysiswere then used to design the questionnaire for the interviews targeting domestic and international chained hotel websites’ functions, social media and mobile service concepts, process of development, and overall effect. This research proposes three conclusions： (1) characteristics in the functions of domestic and international chain hotel websites;(2) website functions that affect hotel operations and consumers’ intention to buy and the effects (3) the effectiveness of social media and mobile service. This research contributes the following suggestions for (1) development structure of effective hotel websites (2) social media and mobile service application in hotel website. Through this research, we expect to increase the booking rates of hotels and maximize sales growth and market share through services on the Web withoutlimitations of time and space. Also, bring the hotel owners new ideas for developing their Web site in future.

碩士
國立清華大學
化學工程學系
88
Abstract This thesis contains investigated the microstructure of comb-like and star-like polymer complexes. The comb-like complexes were created through complexation of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA). Hydrogen-bonding interaction between PEO and DBSA was observed from the result of fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), the birefringence pattern viewed under polarized optical microscopy (POM) showed that PEO(DBSA)x complexes exhibited mesomorphic phases. Small angle X-ray scatting (SAXS) and wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) revealed the microphase separated lamellar structure in the complexes, where the POM chains were inserted into the DBSA layers and were highly-stretched. Since the PEO chains were confined in the DBSA lamella, the crystallization of PEO was completely prohibited except for very degree of complexation (x=0.1). The mesophase isotropization temperatures of the complexes were higher than that of DBSA. In other words, complexes with PEO had improved the stability of mesophase. The rate of mesophase formation in the complexes was much faster than that of pure DBSA. This was attributed to the presence of local concentration fluctuation in the melt of the complexes. The second part of the thesis investigated the star-like polymer complexes. We report the creation of star-like chain architecture through complexation of a mono-amino terminated poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-NH2) with a macrocyclic compound, 4-sulfonic calix[n]arene(n=4 and 8) (SCA-n). The complexes were prepared in aqueous solution to render proton transfer from the sulfonic acid groups in SCA-n to the amino groups in PEO-NH2, and thereby generated 4- and 8-arm star-like complexes with the PEO arms attached to the SCA-n cores via ionic bonding. Formation of the star-like complexes was verified by titration, solubility test, and dilute solution viscometry. The intrinsic viscosities ([h]) of the complexes in toluene were 60% higher than that of neat PEO-NH2, showing that the star structure retained in nonpolar solvents. On the other hand, PEO arms dissociated from the cores in water, so that the complexes and neat PEO-NH2 displayed similar [h]. The star-like complexes showed a SAXS peak associated with the core-core correlation in the melt with the inter-core distance of 7.3 nm. The concentration fluctuation in the melt was completely destroyed upon the crystallization of PEO arms. In the semicrystalline state, the SCA-n cores were excluded from the crystal lattice and resided in the interlamellar amorphous regions. Measurements of the crystal thickness by SAXS indicated that the crystals were once- and twice-folded in neat PEO-NH2 and the complexes crystallized at 40℃ respectively. The growth rate of the star-like complexes was slower than that of pure PEO, and the effect magnified as the number of arms increased.

This thesis presents our recent study of few interesting problems involving activated processes. This chapter gives an overview of the thesis. It is now possible to do single molecule experiments involving enzyme molecules. The kinetics of such reactions exhibits dynamic disorder associated with conformational changes of the enzyme-substrate complex. The static disorder and dynamic disorder of reaction rates, which are essentially indistinguishable in ensemble-averaged experiments, can be determined separately by the real-time single-molecule approach. In our present work we have given a theoretical description of how rate of reactions involving dynamic disorder is studied using path integral approach. It is possible to write the survival probability and the rate of the process as path integrals and then use variational approaches to get bounds for both. Though the method is of general validity, we illustrate it in the case of electronic relaxation in stochastic environment modeled by a particle experiencing diffusive motion in harmonic potential in presence of delta function sink. The exact solution of corresponding Smoluchowski equation was found earlier[1] analytically in Laplace domain with sink having arbitrary strength and position. Exact evaluation of path integral calculation to survival probability is not possible analytically. Wolynes et al.[2] have done an approximate calculation to get bounds to the survival probability in the Laplace domain. A bound in the Laplace domain is not as useful as a bound in the time domain and hence we use the direct approximate variational path integral technique to calculate both lower and upper bound of survival probability in time domain. We mimic the delta function sink by quadratic sink for which the path integral can be solved exactly. The strength of the quadratic sink is treated as variational parameter and using the optimized value for it, one can estimate the optimized lower as well as upper bound of survival probability. We have also calculated a lower bound to the rate. The variational results are compared with the exact ones, and it is found that the results for the two parameter case are better than those of one parameter case. To understand how good our approximation is, we calculate the bounds in survival time and found them to be in good agreement with exact results. Our approach is valid for any arbitrary initial distribution that one may start with. We consider the Kramers problem for a long chain polymer trapped in a biased double well potential. Initially the polymer is in the less stable well and it can escape from this well to the other well by the motion of its N beads across the barrier to attain the configuration having lower free energy. In one dimension we simulate the crossing and show that the results are in agreement with the kink mechanism suggested earlier. In three dimensions, it has not been possible to get analytical “kink solution”for an arbitrary po-tential; however, one can assume the form of the solution of the non-linear equation as a kink solution and then find a double well potential in three dimensions. To verify the kink mechanism, simulations of the dynamics of a discrete Rouse polymer model in a double well in three dimensions were done. We find that the time of crossing is proportional to the chain length which is in agreement with the results of kink mechanism. The shape of the kink solution is also in agreement with the analytical solution in both one and three dimensions. We then consider the dynamics of a short chain polymer crossing over a free energy barrier in space. Adopting the continuum version of the Rouse model, we find exact expressions for the activation energy and the rate of crossing. For this model, the analysis of barrier crossing is analogous to semiclassical treatment of quantum tunneling. Finding the saddle point for the process requires solving a Newton-like equation of motion for a fictitious particle. The analysis shows that short chains would cross the barrier as a globule. The activation free energy for this would increase linearly with the number of units N in the polymer. The saddle point for longer chains is an extended conformation, in which the chain is stretched out. The stretching out lowers the energy and hence the activation free energy is no longer linear in N . The rates in both the cases are calculated using a multidimensional approach and analytical expressions are derived using a new formula for evaluating the infinite products. However, due to the harmonic approximation made in the derivation, the rates are found to diverge at the point where the saddle point changes over from the globule to the stretched out conformation. The reason for this is identified to be the bifurcation of the saddle to give two new saddles. A correction formula is derived for the rate in the vicinity of this point. Numerical results using the formulae are presented. It is possible for the rate to have a minimum as a function of N . This is due to the confinement effects in the initial state. We analyze the dynamics of a star polymer of F arms confined to a double well potential. Initially the molecule is confined to one of the minima and can cross over the barrier to the other side. We use the continuum version of Rouse-Ham model. The rate of crossing is calculated using the multidimensional approach due to Langer[3].Finding the transition state for the process is shown to be equivalent to the solution of Newton’s equations for F independent particles, moving in an inverted potential. For each star polymer, there is a critical total length N Tc below which the polymer crosses over as a globule. The value of NTc depends on the curvature at the top of the barrier as well as the individual arm lengths. So we keep the lengths of (F -1) arms fixed and increase the length of the F th arm to get the minimum total length NTc. Below NTc the activation energy is proportional to the total arm length of the star. Above N Tc the star crosses the barrier in a stretched state. Thus, there is a multifurcation of the transition state at NTc. Above NTc, the activation energy at first increases and then decreases with increasing arm length. This particular variation of activation energy results from the fact that in the stretched state, only one arm of the polymer is stretched across the top of the barrier, while others need not to be. We calculate the rate by expanding the energy around the saddle upto second order in the fluctuations. As we use the continuum model, there are infinite modes for the polymer and consequently, the prefactor has infinite products. We show that these infinite products can be reduced to a simple expression, and evaluated easily. However, the rate diverges near N Tc due to the multifurcation, which results in more than one unstable mode. The cure for this divergence is to keep terms upto fourth order in the expansion of energy for these modes. Performing this, we have calculated the rate as a function of the length of the star. It is found that the rate has a nonmonotonic dependence on the length, suggesting that longer stars may actually cross over faster.

碩士
中原大學
企業管理研究所
103
Recently, the development of tourism industry has become more and more vigorous with the open-up policy of Taiwan government. Hotel industry has become the most important pillar of tourism industry. Behind the fact of significant increase of leisure travelers coming to Taiwan every year and the average number of trips taken by our people, it indicates the increased market demand of tourist hotels. In the Taiwan’s tourist hotel development process , a number of five-star international chained-brand hotels have stationed in Taiwan since 2010, leading Taiwan to turning into an important market where the international hotel chains complete with each other for. However, under the extraordinary increase in demand for accommodation, requirements for quality will also be raised. At this very moment, an international five-star chained-brand hotel has a strong advantage. Therefore, establishing a comprehensive strategic plan, clarifying current position of the hotel in the market, and figuring out the location of competitors have become the current issues for managers to execute the strategy. This study adopts the strategic groups framework and performance indicators through five-star international chain hotel industry as the grouped facets, in addition to the previous literature study, the selected facets are the descriptions of this industry’s characteristics. Obtaining the clustering results through Co-plot by statistically analyzing the original data of five-star international chain hotels between 2011 and 2015 provided by the Tourism Bureau, MOTC, the results show the grouping structural characteristics of strategic groups and moving state of group members. This study will explore strategic group dynamics of Taiwan''s five-star international chain hotel industry. The results of this study show the dynamic trend of such hotel which can be seen by dividing the five-year performance plan of five-star international chain hotels in Taiwan into four strategic groups according to Co-plot analysis. Each group learns the group characteristics by means of the correlation coefficient matrix, and the inner member of the group has obvious change trajectory with the changes in the competitive environment. Therefore, only through market positioning, thereby clarifying the competition level of the place where the hotel located, the hotel manager could enhance the overall competitive core capabilities to increase the customer retention rate and have new customers, and to hold on to a dominant position.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment for the Degree of Master of Medicine In the branch of Anatomical Pathology Johannesburg 2015
Background: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) poses a major global health problem. According to the World Health Organization, South Africa is a country with one of the highest reported incidence rates of this disease. Key to overcoming this preventable and treatable disease lies in establishing a reliable and rapid diagnostic approach. Aims and Objectives: This study aims to investigate the validity of the mycobacterium polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay applied to formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue in which the histology showed granulomatous inflammation with no demonstrable acid-fast bacilli. Methods: A retrospective, cross sectional and non-interventional study was conducted on 121 histopathology cases showing granulomatous inflammation with a negative Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) stain. The mycobacterium PCR results obtained in these cases were compared against the results of mycobacterium culture obtained from a specimen derived from the same or related site as the biopsy. Results: The mean age of the study population was 35.3 years and the study cohort included 63 males and 58 females. The sensitivity of nested mycobacterium PCR (detecting the 133 base pair product of the heat shock protein 65 kilo Dalton gene), was 64.1% and the specificity was 68.2%. The positive and negative predictive values were 49% and 80% respectively. Twenty six of the 121 cases studied had a false positive result (21.5%). CONCLUSION: There are many factors that may influence the result of a PCR assay and the interpretation thereof. Some of these factors include the inability of the test to distinguish between live and dead bacilli, the high risk of carry over contamination, and the paucibacillary nature of certain samples with an unequal distribution of the few bacilli that may be present. Although the sensitivity and specificity of mycobacterium PCR on paucibacillary, formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded tissue is suboptimal, the interpretation of these results must be performed in conjunction with the overall clinical presentation of the patient.
MT2016

碩士
國立臺灣海洋大學
航運管理學系
96
When the ocean freight forwards face the keen competition, the management has to find what using supply chain management could achieve the competitive advantages. The research is for the purpose of using supply chain management to observe the competitive advantages of ocean freight forwards─ a case study of Pacific Star and Pacific Concord Group. Through the material flows, financial flows, human resource and information flows of an enterprise, it will find out which the competitive advantages of ocean freight forwards, provides to industry the reference.

Heteropolymeric O antigen (O-Ag)-capped lipopolysaccharide is the principal constituent of the Gram-negative bacterial cell surface. It is assembled via the integral inner membrane (IM) Wzx/Wzy-dependent pathway. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Wzx translocates lipid-linked anionic O-Ag subunits from the cytoplasmic to the periplasmic leaflets of the IM, where Wzy polymerizes the subunits to lengths regulated by Wzz1/2. The Wzx and Wzy IM topologies were mapped using random C-terminal-truncation fusions to PhoALacZα, which displays PhoA/LacZ activity dependent upon its subcellular localization. Twelve transmembrane segments (TMS) containing charged residues were identified for Wzx. Fourteen TMS, two sizeable cytoplasmic loops (CL), and two large periplasmic loops (PL3 and PL5 of comparable size) were characterized for Wzy. Despite Wzy PL3–PL5 sequence homology, these loops were distinguished by respective cationic and anionic charge properties. Site-directed mutagenesis identified functionally-essential Arg residues in both loops. These results led to the proposition of a “catch-and-release” mechanism for Wzy function. The abovementioned Arg residues and intra-Wzy PL3–PL5 sequence homology were conserved among phylogenetically diverse Wzy homologues, indicating widespread potential for the proposed mechanism. Unexpectedly, Wzy CL6 mutations disrupted Wzz1-mediated regulation of shorter O-Ag chains, providing the first evidence for direct Wzy–Wzz interaction. Mutagenesis studies identified functionally-important charged and aromatic TMS residues localized to either the interior vestibule or TMS bundles in a 3D homology model constructed for Wzx. Substrate-binding or energy-coupling roles were proposed for these residues, respectively. The Wzx interior was found to be cationic, consistent with translocation of anionic O-Ag subunits. To test these hypotheses, Wzx was overexpressed, purified, and reconstituted in proteoliposomes loaded with I−. Common transport coupling ions were introduced to “open” the protein and allow detection of I− flux via reconstituted Wzx. Extraliposomal changes in H+ induced I− flux, while Na+ addition had no effect, suggesting H+-dependent Wzx gating. Putative energy-coupling residue mutants demonstrated defective H+-dependent halide flux. Wzx also mediated H+ uptake as detected through fluorescence shifts from proteoliposomes loaded with pH-sensitive dye. Consequently, Wzx was proposed to function via H+-coupled antiport. In summary, this research has contributed structural and functional knowledge leading to novel mechanistic understandings for O-Ag biosynthesis in bacteria.
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1.) Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship doctoral award, 2.) CIHR Michael Smith Foreign Study Award, 3.) Cystic Fibrosis Canada (CFC) doctoral studentship, 4.) University of Guelph Dean's Tri-Council Scholarship, 5.) Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology, 6.) Operating grants to Dr. Joseph S. Lam from CIHR (MOP-14687) and CFC