Browsing by Subject "Taiwan"
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Item A Comparative Study of Adult Mortality in Taiwan and the United States in the Twentieth Century(2013-05-03) Chang, Yu TingThis dissertation is a historically comparative study of adult mortality between Taiwan and the United States throughout the 20th century. The 20th century was characterized by the largest rise in life expectancy at birth and the most rapid decrease in mortality in recorded human history. This dissertation aims not only to examine and compare the trends and levels of life expectancy in Taiwan and the United States over an extended period of time, but also to evaluate the extent to which smoking behavior and obesity play an important role in the recent levels of adult mortality in the United States. I used logistic models of mortality to examine and compare the trends and levels of life expectancy in Taiwan from 1906 to 2008 and in the United States from 1933 to 2007. Second, I re-estimated life expectancy by introducing smoking-attributable mortality to further compare the levels of life expectancy between the two countries. Third, I estimated event history models to investigate whether and how smoking behavior and obesity are related to mortality in the United States in the 1990 to 2006 and the 2000 to 2006 periods. At the end of the 20th century, the level of life expectancy at birth for females in the U.S. was higher than in Taiwan, but they were close. In this century, however, the level of life expectancy at birth in Taiwan has increased to a higher level than in the U.S. The levels of male life expectancy at birth for the two countries are similar in this century, but there were significant differences in the 20th century. The great improvements in juvenile, background and senescent mortality rates in Taiwan may be used to explain this correspondence of life expectancy between the two countries today. Besides, higher smoking-attributed mortality can also serve as another possible reason for the stagnant levels of life expectancy in the U.S. Finally, smoking-related and obesity-related mortality have become progressively more important as predictors of adult mortality in the U.S. in past decades.Item A landscape approach to reserving farm ponds for wintering bird refuges in Taoyuan, Taiwan(Texas A&M University, 2006-08-16) Fang, Wei-TaMan-made farm ponds are unique geographic features of the Taoyuan Tableland. Besides irrigation, they provide refuges for wintering birds. The issue at hand is that these features are disappearing and bring with it the loss of this refuge function. It is ecologically significant because one fifth of all the bird species in Taiwan find a home on these ponds. This study aims at characterizing the diversity of bird species associated with these ponds whose likelihood of survival was assessed along the gradient of land development intensities. Such characterization helps establish decision criteria needed for designating certain ponds for habitat preservation and developing their protection strategies. A holistic model was developed by incorporating logistic regression with error back-propagation into the paradigm of artificial neural networks (ANN). The model considers pond shape, size, neighboring farmlands, and developed areas in calculating parameters pertaining to their respective and interactive influences on avian diversity, among them the Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H??). Results indicate that ponds with regular shape or the ones with larger size possess a strong positive correlation with H??. Farm ponds adjacent to farmland benefited waterside bird diversity. On the other hand, urban development was shown to cause the reduction of farmland and pond numbers, which in turn reduced waterside bird diversity. By running the ANN model with four neurons, the resulting H?? index shows a good-fit prediction of bird diversity against pond size, shape, neighboring farmlands, and neighboring developed areas with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.72, in contrast to the results from a linear regression model (r < 0.28). Analysis of historical pond occurrence to the present showed that ponds with larger size and a long perimeter were less likely to disappear. Smaller (< 0.1 ha) and more curvilinear ponds had a more drastic rate of disappearance. Based on this finding, a logistic regression was constructed to predict pond-loss likelihood in the future and to help identify ponds that should be protected. Overlaying results from ANN and form logistic regression enabled the creation of pond-diversity maps for these simulated scenarios of development intensities with respective to pond-loss trends and the corresponding dynamics of bird diversity.Item A music program for grade one based on the new music curriculum standards (1993) in Taiwan(Texas Tech University, 2003-12) Chung, Szu-MingNot availableItem "A Tolerable State of Order": The United States, Taiwan, and the Recognition of the People's Republic of China, 1949-1979(2012-10-29) Hilton, Brian PaulAmerican policy toward the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China from 1949-1979 was geared primarily toward the accomplishment of one objective: to achieve a reorientation of Chinese Communist revolutionary foreign policy that would contribute to the establishment of a "tolerable state of order" in the international community based on the principles of respect for each nations' territorial integrity and political sovereignty. China's revolutionary approach to its foreign relations constituted a threat to this objective. During the 1960s and '70s, however, Beijing gradually began accepting views conducive to the achievement of the "tolerable state of order" that Washington hoped to create, thus contributing significantly to the relaxation of Sino-American tensions and the normalization of relations in 1979. From this basic thesis four subsidiary arguments emerge. First, the seven presidential administrations from Harry Truman to Jimmy Carter pursued a common set of objectives toward which their respective China policies conformed, thus granting American China policy a degree of consistency that historians of Sino-American relations have not previously recognized. Second, the most significant dilemma American officials faced was striking an effective balance between containment (to punish aggression) and engagement (to emphasize the benefits of cooperation). Third, American policy toward the ROC throughout virtually the entire period in question remained a function of Washington's effort to reorient Beijing's foreign policy approach. Fourth, domestic American opinion was of secondary importance in determining the nature and implementation of American China policy.Item Art teachers' attitudes toward and experiences in the use of computer technology to conform with the teaching strategies stipulated in the 2002 Taiwanese first to ninth grade curriculum alignment(Texas Tech University, 2004-08) Lin, Po-HsienThis survey study investigated art teachers' experiences with and attitudes toward the use of computer technology to design appropriate in-service and pre-service art education programs to prepare art teachers to comply with the 2002 Taiwanese 1st – 9th grade curriculum alignment. Two subscales, experience and attitude, were designed to construct the questionnaire. The experience scale included six factors of (a) competence in integrating computer technology with art making; (b) general concepts of computer technology; (c) basic knowledge of computer operation; (d) competence in data processing; (e) competence in using the Internet; and (f) competence in using computer technology for art teaching. The attitude scale included two factors of (a) concept of integrating computer technology into art education and (b) concept of digital art. The survey was aimed at Taiwanese in-service art teachers. A total of 293 representative sample of data were collected creating a response rate of 58.6%. The analyses of multiple regression supported the hypotheses that art teachers' experiences in the use of computer technology significantly influenced their attitudes toward integrating computer technology into art instruction and toward digital art. Six experience-factors developed shows statistical significance in predicting art teachers' two attitude-factors. The general tendency was that the more art teachers had positive experiences in using computer technology, the more they supported the integration of computer technology into i^'-9"^ grade curriculum alignment. To enhance art teachers' advanced competence in the use of computer technology, especially the improvement of the competence in integrating computer technology with art making, was found to augment their positive attitudes toward the artistic value of digital art. Six descriptors were used to examine whether art teachers' socio-demographic backgrounds influenced their experiences in the use of computer technology. Age, the number of years taught, and size of the teaching school were the significant factors which resulted in art teachers' different responses to their experiences in using computer technology. Among these three variables, the number of years taught demonstrated the most influential effect. Gender, educational background (teacher college/university and non-teacher college/university), and location of the school were not found to have significant effects. When combining six socio-demographic descriptors with six experience factors to predict art teachers' attitudes, demographic backgrounds did not demonstrate important influence, except educational background. Thus specific educational backgrounds increased positive attitudes toward integrating digital technology in art making, but did not increase art teachers' experiences with computer use in art education. Statistical data also showed that recent efforts made by Taiwanese teacher education programs reflected successful achievements in promoting art teachers' computer competences. Nevertheless, the impact of art teachers' number of years taught indicate that the more experienced art teachers are, the less competent they are in using computers. This suggests the need for in-service education in how to integrate computers in teaching and making art, and to increase art teachers' familiarity with digital art.Item A comparative content analysis of cross-border strategic brand alliance advertisements in Taiwan and the United States(2010-05) Wang, Jeffrey, 1986-; Lee, Wei-Na, 1957-; Love, BradThis study sought to enrich the research in cross-border strategic brand alliance (SBA), an international business practice highly utilized today. In order to spread out the risk of competing in international markets, firms formed alliances with overseas counterparts. However, confusing positioning and inaccuracies in communication in cross-cultural settings reduced the success rate of these partnerships. The content analysis examined cross-border SBA advertisements to shed light on their communicational strategies. Taiwan and the US, representative of inherent cultural values in Eastern and Western countries, served as great research subjects for this comparative study. The findings suggested that cross-border SBA advertisements do not have significantly distinctive communication strategies except for the inherent difference in multi-national characteristics. However, cross-border SBA advertisements in both countries differ from generic advertisements documented in previous studies in terms of information cues, advertising appeals, and general communication strategies. The comparison between cross-border SBA advertisements was reflective of the cultural differences in these cultural contexts. In sum, cross-border SBA advertisements were embedded with stronger cultural distinctiveness and in need of special execution to integrate proper messages.Item Conceptions of Taiwanese identity : Lee Teng-hui and the understanding Taiwan textbooks(2010-05) Tran, Euhwa; Hsu, Madeline Yuan-yin; Li, HuaiyinAuthoritarian governments have long wielded education as political tools by which to transmit their conceptions of nationalistic identity, but does the same hold true of democratic governments? Transitioning from martial law to full democracy in the 1980s and 1990s, Taiwan serves as an ideal case study. As authoritarian rulers, Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang (KMT) imposed education curriculum that legitimized their claims to be the rulers of all China. After martial law was lifted in 1987, dissenters could freely vocalize a Taiwanese identity that advocated for a sovereign Taiwan separate from the Chinese nation. Contemporaneously, Lee Teng-hui rose to power as a loyal KMT member, but as president he shifted away from Chinese identity to promote a sense of Taiwanese identity. Preceded by nationalistically Chinese KMT stalwarts and succeeded by one who pushed Taiwan even closer to independence, Lee was a transitional leader whose own ideological evolution reflected Taiwan’s shift from a staunchly Chinese political entity to a possibly independent state separate from the mainland. During Lee’s presidency, controversy erupted over the content of textbooks for a junior high course entitled Understanding Taiwan [renshi taiwan] that focused for the first time on Taiwan in its own right instead of as only one small part of China. The textbooks instigated a debate on identity, for how one regarded the accuracy or appropriateness of the textbooks reflected one’s views of Taiwan in relation to China. The debates and the textbooks’ contents revealed clearly that despite the considerable democratization occurring in Taiwan over the decade, curriculum content continued to mirror the convictions espoused by the central government—led by the democratically elected president Lee Teng-hui (1988-2000)—in much the same way that it had done so under the authoritarian rule of Chiang Kai-shek (1949-1975).Item A cross-national comparison of health expectancy : Japan, the United States and Taiwan(2013-08) Chiu, Chi-Tsun; Hayward, Mark D.Japan is the longest lived population in the world and has led the world in low mortality for over two decades. The United States, although its GDP exceeds all other countries, has a life expectancy that falls substantially below most other western countries. Taiwan, although it has an emerging economy with rapid aging population, has a life expectancy approaching that of the United States. Previous studies have investigated multiple domains of physical health for elderly Japanese, American, and Taiwanese, but very few studies have compared mortality across these countries and even fewer have examined how mortality and morbidity intersect differently across the countries to influence differences in healthy life expectancy. This dissertation is aimed at filling this gap. Based on studies in the United States and other Western countries, education is increasingly characterized as a "fundamental cause" of health -- with more years of educational attainment associated with better health. Although the association is robust for a variety of health measures and mortality in the United States and other Western countries, studies in East Asia report more modest associations or no associations. Thus, whether the association extends beyond the Western context is less clear. In my dissertation, I investigate these issues in detail. In the United States, the more-educated enjoy longer life expectancy and a compression of mortality comparing with their less-educated counterpart. Here, data from Taiwan and Japan are used to assess whether education has similar consequences in two important non-Western settings. In sum, the findings reveal that: (1) older Japanese people not only have the highest total life expectancy but also have the highest absolute healthy life expectancy in each gender group, (2) older American and Taiwanese people have similar total life expectancy in each gender group, but they have very different health profiles, (3) educational gradients on mortality/health differ across gender and country groups, and (4) within a population, having more education helps maximize lifespan, changes and delays the biological aging process in the different contexts. Overall, the results underscore the importance of international perspective in explicating health disparities, especially educational differentials in health.Item Developing an effective gaming management program in Taiwan(2010-08) Chang, Wanching; Yuan, Jingxue; Goh, Ben K.; Stout, Betty L.; Fowler, Deborah C.; Giroux, SharonA shortage in the number of trained management employees in the gaming industry in Asia currently exists due to the lack of casino management certificate programs offered by institutions of higher education. The rationale for certificate programs, as it has evolved nationally, seems clear enough. These programs are a response to the vocational needs of individuals and the educational needs of evolving fields in gaming industry. Unfortunately, a small number of certificate programs exist in Asian countries. Therefore, the need exists to investigate the development f gaming management certificate programs in Taiwan‟s higher education. The purpose of this study is to examine the prospects for providing comprehensive gaming management certificate programs to be embedded in the hospitality education system in Taiwan. With the findings of this study, educators will be able to identify the skills and knowledge that employers in today‟s gaming industry find essential, and they will be able to design appropriate gaming-related coursework and classes which will enable the students to obtain the skills and knowledge deemed most important. A qualitative research design has been adapted for this study. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with casino employees and managers in Macau, China and with hospitality management program administrators in Taiwan. A cross-group perspective was used to analyze and interpret the data collected in this study because it was hoped that the combination of academic and industry perspectives would generate a deeper understanding of an explanation for the perceived benefits of a gaming management certificate program. The four research questions are mainly satisfied by the findings. First, the findings overall reveal favorable perceptions toward the gaming management certificate programs, in terms of individual professional development and the increased rate of enrollment for the department. Second, the way to overcome the difficulties and critical issues contribute several key elements for developing an effective gaming management program. Last, some suggestions and comments proposed by three different groups of participants evolve into innovative guidelines for future curriculum design. The discussion takes into consideration the literature on Taiwan‟s higher educational system and gaming industry in Asian jurisdictions. The implications of these findings are intended to augment the applicability for different cultures and geographies, providing essentials for developing an effective gaming management certificate program. The chapter concludes with the striving direction for Taiwan‟s gaming education.Item Development of a model to measure customer satisfaction with international tourist hotels in Taiwan(2009-12) Chen, Chung-Hao; Stout, Betty L.; Dodd, Timothy H.; Huffman, Lynn; Blum, Shane C.In Taiwan, there is no commonly accepted and official standard to measure customer satisfaction in hotels. A customer satisfaction index represents a uniform system for evaluating, comparing, and enhancing customer satisfaction within firms and industries (Fornell, Johnson, Anderson, Cha, & Bryant, 1996). The purpose of this preliminary study was to develop an appropriate customer satisfaction index model associated with Taiwanese international tourist hotels and identify any significant differences in guests’ perceptions of service quality, hotel image, perceived value and customer satisfaction based on gender, age, nationality, education, and annual income. This study utilized a convenience sampling method to collect data in six international tourist hotels in Taipei, Taiwan from May 1 through May 20, 2009. Questionnaires with stamped envelopes were given to each guest as they checked out. Each of six hotels was allotted 200 questionnaires, which were distributed by fieldworkers who stood in front of reception desk to invite guests to participate in this study. Of the 1,200 questionnaires distributed, 352 were usable (29.33% response rate). Respondents included 65.90% male and 34.10% female. Taiwan R.O.C was the nationality of 34.38% of guests with 20.17% from Japan, and 11.93% from North America. The study used Structural Equation Modeling to test the hypotheses and relationships among variables in the proposed customer satisfaction index model. In addition, this study used ANOVA to test for significant differences in terms of service quality, hotel image, perceived value, and customer satisfaction based on gender, age, nationality, education, and annual income. Statements of hotel guests who responded to open-ended questions during the pilot study as well responses to qualitative questions by experts in the hotel industry and university educators helped to clarify the meaning of items included in the structured questionnaire. When the items on the final questionnaire matched the top three attributes of four constructs (service quality, hotel image, perceived value, and customer satisfaction) of the qualitative findings, the researcher demonstrated that the items on the questionnaire were more reliable and valid. Results indicated that a modified customer satisfaction index model provided a uniform means of assessing the quality of customer satisfaction in Taiwanese international tourist hotels. For hotel owners and managers, this customer satisfaction index could be a useful tool for evaluating customer satisfaction and would provide a significant complement to conventional measurements of customer satisfaction.Item Essays on Economic and Environmental Analysis of Taiwanese Bioenergy Production on Set-Aside Land(2012-02-14) Kung, Chih-ChunDomestic production of bioenergy by utilizing set-aside land in Taiwan can reduce Taiwan?s reliance on expensive and politically insecure foreign fossil fuels while also reducing the combustion of fossil fuels, which emit substantial amounts of greenhouse gases. After joining the World Trade Organization, Taiwan?s agricultural sector idled about one-third of the national cropland, hereafter called ?set-aside land?. This potentially provides the land base for Taiwan to develop a bioenergy industry. This dissertation examines Taiwan?s potential for bioenergy production using feedstocks grown on set-aside land and discusses the consequent effects on Taiwan?s energy security plus benefits and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Taiwan Agricultural Sector Model (TASM) was used to simulate different agricultural policies related to bioenergy production. To do this simulation the TASM model was extended to include additional bioenergy production possibilities and GHG accounting. We find that Taiwan?s bioenergy production portfolio depends on prices of ethanol, electricity and GHG. When GHG prices go up, ethanol production decreases and electricity production increases because of the relatively stronger GHG offset power of biopower. Results from this pyrolysis study are then incorporated into the TASM model. Biochar from pyrolysis can be used in two ways: burn it or use it as a soil amendment. Considering both of these different uses of biochar, we examine bioenergy production and GHG offset to see to what extent Taiwan gets energy security benefits from the pyrolysis technology and how it contributes to climate change mitigation. Furthermore, by examining ethanol, electricity and pyrolysis together in the same framework, we are able to see how they affect each other under different GHG prices, coal prices and ethanol prices. Results show that ethanol is driven out by pyrolysis-based electricity when GHG price is high. We also find that when biochar is hauled back to the rice fields, GHG emission reduction is higher than that when biochar is burned for electricity; however, national electricity production is consequently higher when biochar is burned.Item From rifting to collision : the evolution of the Taiwan Mountain Belt(2013-05) Lester, William Ryan; McIntosh, Kirk D.; Lavier, Luc LouisArc-continent collisions are believed to be an important mechanism for the growth of continents. Taiwan is one of the modern day examples of this process, and as such, it is an ideal natural laboratories to investigate the uncertain behavior of continental crust during collision. The obliquity of collision between the northern South China Sea (SCS) rifted margin and Luzon arc in the Manila trench subduction zone allows for glimpses into different temporal stages of collision at different spatial locations, from the mature mountain-belt in central-northern Taiwan to the 'pre-collision' rifted margin and subduction zone south of Taiwan. Recently acquired seismic reflection and wide-angle seismic refraction data document the crustal-scale structure of the mountain belt through these different stages. These data reveal a wide rifted margin near Taiwan with half-graben rift basins along the continental shelf and a broad distal margin consisting of highly-extended continental crust modified by post-rift magmatism. Magmatic features in the distal margin include sills in the post-rift sediments, intruded crust, and a high-velocity lower crustal layer that likely represents mafic magmatism. Post-rift magmatism may have been induced by thermal erosion of lithospheric mantle following breakup and the onset of seafloor spreading. Geophysical profiles across the early-stage collision offshore southern Taiwan show evidence the thin crust of the distal margin is subducting at the Manila trench and structurally underplating the growing orogenic wedge ahead of the encroaching continental shelf. Subduction of the distal margin may induce a pre-collision flexural response along the continental shelf as suggested by a recently active major rift fault and a geodynamic model of collision. The weak rift faults may be inverted during the subsequent collision with the continental shelf. These findings support a multi-phase collision model where the early growth of the mountain belt is driven in part by underplating of the accretionary prism by crustal blocks from the distal margin. The wedge is subsequently uplift and deformed during a collision with the continental shelf that involves both thin-skinned and thick-skinned structural styles. This model highlights the importance of rifting styles on mountain-building.Item Health-related quality of life and sleep disorders in Taiwanese people with heart failure(2007-05) Chen, Hsing-Mei, 1968-; Clark, Angela P.Item Health-related quality of life and sleep disorders in Taiwanese people with heart failure(2007) Chen, Hsing-Mei; Clark, Angela P.The purposes of this cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational study were to describe the characteristics of sleep disorders and HRQOL; to explore the relationships between individual characteristics (age, gender, education, living arrangement, marital status, financial status, employment status, and type of language), HF characteristics (body mass index, comorbidity, and perceived health), sleep disorders (nocturnal sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, and daytime napping), and HRQOL; and to identify predictors of HRQOL. A nonprobability sample of 125 participants with HF was recruited from the outpatient departments of a large medical center and an affiliated hospital located in southern Taiwan. All participants were individually interviewed by the principal investigator in either a private area within a clinic or in their homes, except for two participants who completed the questionnaires by themselves at locations of their choice. Overall, the study findings indicated that insomnia (difficulty initiating sleep, maintaining sleep, or both) may be common among the participants. Approximately 72.8% of the participants reported poor nocturnal sleep quality, however, only 30 (24%) of them had excessive daytime sleepiness. Additionally, the majority (81.6%) of the participants reported they were prone to habitual daytime napping after lunch. Except for the significant relationship between daytime sleepiness and the component of daytime dysfunction, daytime sleepiness and daytime napping were not significantly correlated with the global and componential variables of nocturnal sleep quality. By using a hierarchical multiple regression model analysis, six predictors were identified from 14 predictor variables, and those six accounted for 58.5% (p<.001) of the variance in HRQOL. After controlling for age, education, financial status, comorbidity, perceived health, and NYHA Class, the analyses showed that sleep variables (subjective sleep quality, sleep disturbances, and sleep latency) accounted for 7% of the variance in HRQOL. The study found that the Taiwanese persons with HF who experienced better HRQOL were those who had higher level of education, lower NYHA Classes, and small numbers of comorbid conditions, and reported better subjective sleep quality, fewer sleep disturbances, and shorter sleep latency.Item Income and occupation dynamics in the globalization era: a case study in Chia-Yi County, Taiwan(Texas Tech University, 2001-08) Jiang, TingAfter the industrial era, the United States and other economically advanced countries have gradually shifted to the so-called "information society." In this new society, services industries increasingly displaced manufacturing as sources of wealth creation. The role of information became pervasive and mental labor tended to replace physical labor as the dominant economic activities (Fukuyama, 1999). With the rise of the "information age" (Castells, 1996) and the coming of the prevailing "accelerated globalization" (Mittelman, 2000), profound changes took place in the former economic, political, and culture spheres of these societies. "Accelerated globalization," is rooted in the development of liberal economy, and informational technologies. The information technologies mainly refer to computermediated communication infrastructure, the digitalization technology, and the electronic network, typically represented by the Internet. With its frenzied e-speed, globalization profoundly affects the network of social institutions on which societies are based: family, community, and state (OECD, 1997). Many important structural aspects are redefined under this catalyst, for example, organization-structures, industrial work relationships, occupations, urban problems, etc.Item An investigation of the People's Republic of China's claims to sovereignty over Taiwan(2006-12) Martinez, Jeanette Angell; Hart, Roger (Roger Preston)This thesis is an investigation into the rhetoric of the People's Republic of China about the cross-Strait situation. Specifically, it details the way the different bodies within the PRC government discuss the situation and argue Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. All these bodies claim that China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity are incomplete without full reunification of Taiwan with the mainland.Item Motion and evolution of the Chaochou Fault, Southern Taiwan(Texas A&M University, 2005-11-01) Hassler, Lauren E.The Chaochou Fault (CCF) is both an important lithologic boundary and a significant topographic feature in the Taiwan orogenic belt. It is the geologic boundary between the Slate Belt to the east, and the Western Foothills to the west. Although the fault is known to be a high angle oblique sinistral thrust fault in places, both its kinematic history and its current role in the development of the orogen are poorly understood. Field fabric data suggest that structural orientations vary along strike, particularly in the middle segment, the suspected location of the intersection of the on-land Eurasian continent-ocean boundary and the Luzon Island Arc. Foliation/solution cleavage is oriented NE-SW and in the northern and southern sections, but ESE-WNW in the middle segment. Slip lineations also reveal a change in fault motion from dip-parallel in the north to a more scattered pattern in the south. This correlates somewhat with recent GPS results, which indicate that the direction of current horizontal surface motion changes along strike from nearly perpendicular to the fault in the northern field area, to oblique and nearly parallel to the fault in the southern field area. The magnitude of vertical surface motion vectors, relative to Lanyu Island, decreases to the south. Surface morphology parameters, including mountain front sinuosity and valley floor width/valley height ratio indicate higher activity and uplift in the north. These observations correlate well with published apatite/zircon fission track data that indicate un-reset ages in the south, and reset ages in the northern segment. Geodetic and geomorphic data indicate that the northern segment of the CCF and Slate Belt are currently undergoing rapid uplift related to oblique arc-continent collision between the Eurasian continent and the Luzon arc. The southern segment is significantly less active perhaps because the orogen is not yet involved in direct arc-continent collision.Item Origins of labor market changes in the transition to an information economy : wage structure, employment, and occupation transformation in Taiwan after 1990(2009-05) Wang, Wei-ching; Sinha, Nikhil; Straubhaar, Joseph D.Labor market change in societies where an information economy is evolving, is a central area of concern for information society scholars today. While there has been considerable research conducted on cases of developed countries, research on labor market changes during a transition to an information economy outside of the advanced industrial economies is scarce. Thus, this dissertation proposes to examine the changes in wage, employment, and occupation structure that take place when an NIC, such as Taiwan, ushers in an information economy, and to explore the reasons behind these changes. This dissertation combined the historical, policy, and statistical analyses and concluded that the transformation from labor intensive manufacturing to an information intensive economy, as arranged by the Taiwanese government due to its own political and governing purposes, and also in the context of international political and economic circumstances, determined Taiwan’s economic resource arrangement, which resulted in an increasingly unbalanced labor market in terms of wage distribution, unemployment, and occupation structure. This transformation changed and shaped the structure of the labor market to benefit workers more skilled with information, more professional, having higher level knowledge and a higher level of education, while an increasing amount of white-collar and service workers began earning comparatively low wages. At the same time the demand for blue-collar and lower skill workers severely declined. Moreover, the total labor demand of information manufacturing and information intensive service is much less than that of traditional labor intensive manufacturing, resulting in Taiwan’s increasing unemployment problem. Among these processes, many different social, political, policy, and economic factors interacted and collectively determined this result. Among them, the role of the state in shaping Taiwan’s information economy in general and the labor market situation in particular did matter considerably.Item Place, role strain and health: A comparative study of the United States and Taiwan(2007-05) McClure, Ashley; Tsai, Yung-Mei; Cannon, Julie H.This thesis seeks to first establish the social construction of women's roles through the works of Engels, Lerner, Marx and Engels, Hayden and Gilman. After tracing the development of women's position in society, traditional urban theories of Simmel, Wirth, and Fischer are introduced and juxtaposed against Friedan's perception that suburban middle class women have the worst health due to their isolation and inability to become free agents. These theories are significant in that they influence the degree of role strain a woman experiences by shaping their role expectations. Role strain is a concept related to Hochschild's notion of the "second shift" and may negatively impact both mental and physical health. Findings in this thesis indicate that role strain does not negatively impact health but is found among women of all classes.Item Retrocession, partition and sporting communities in fractured societies : baseball in Taiwan and Gaelic games in Ireland, 1884-1968(2011-12) Harney, John James; Li, Huaiyin; Chang, Yvonne; Hsu, Madeline Y.; Metzler, Mark; Oppenheim, Robert; Traphagan, JohnThis dissertation examines the roles of popular sports baseball and Gaelic Games in Taiwanese and Irish society respectively between the years 1884 and 1968. During this period, the spread of each sport in popularity and the subsequent increased profile in the public realm highlighted similar challenges faced by the societies of each territory as inhabitants of minor players in a global political system dominated by major powers. The development of Taiwanese baseball and its spread in popularity during the colonial period reveals the extent to which divisions between colonial Japanese and local Taiwanese blurred beyond the parameters of governmental efforts at coexistence and assimilation. Two teams in particular, the Nenggao team of 1924-25 and the KANO team of 1931, give evidence of a colonial Taiwanese sporting culture that featured strengthening connections with sporting culture in Japan. In both cases, baseball displayed potential as an integrating force in colonial Taiwanese society between social groups resident on the island rather than as a source for opposition to colonial rule. This is in direct contrast to Irish society, where the resurgence in popularity of Gaelic Games occurred within the political context of exclusivist nationalism. Gaelic Games existed as cultural markers of an Irish culture defined by a Gaelic ethnic identity and political commitment to an Irish nation state, choosing to ignore the realities of partition and the existence of a sizable Loyalist community in the north of the country. This viewpoint persisted until the late 1960s, when the eruption of paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland irrevocably changed the terms of Irish political participation. At the same time, Taiwanese baseball transitioned from a shared cultural form between Taiwan and Japan to a potent avenue for emerging Taiwanese political voices in 1968 with the widely celebrated success of the Hongye schoolboy baseball team. Baseball’s popularity had persisted in the face of ambivalent attitudes among ruling Guomindang officials following retrocession, but the Hongye victory marked the introduction of specific political overtones to Taiwanese baseball, bringing an end to decades of the sport’s primary role as an act of public participation with limited political connotations.