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Most of the members of the Competent Authority are from the professions such as fisheries or urban planning, which has limited capacity for integrated coastal management, and are urgent on getting into capacity development. Therefore, this paper assesses Taiwan's local government's integrated coastal management capabilities through the competency assessment framework provided by the United Nations Development Program as for bridging the gap between required capacity and existing capacity. The main findings of the study are: in terms of Institutional arrangements, the scores of "incorporating stakeholders", "budgeting, management and execution", and "making policies and strategies" are lower. For leadership level and knowledge level, each item has a higher score than 3.30, which shows that local government personnel mostly agree with the leaders of integrated coastal management and have certain knowledge; and in terms of accountability, only "whether your organization has the ability to establish a strong vision of a responsible mechanism" has a lower score of 3.03, which shows that local government personnel also agree on the level of accountability. This shows that the current management and maintaining the status quo of the Competent Authority lacks of overall planning for future coastal use. The leaders of the existing coastal management authorities should form a cross-disciplinary team to fully plan for the coast for the future. In terms of training, there should be a coastal management authority to conduct central training in the first place, and subsidies to the local government. Therefore, we are able to gradually implement integrated coastal management. Summary In order to promote integrated coastal management and promote the sustainable development of coastal areas, our country announced in February 2015 the implementation of the "Coastal Zone Management Act", the Ministry of Interior Affairs is responsible for the development of the overall coastal management plan, and the local government is responsible for the formulation of the secondary protection plan and the protection plan. However, only a small number of local governments in Taiwan currently have marine affairs specialized units, the rest of the county and city coastal management affairs are mostly promoted by the Urban Development Bureau or the Construction Department. Most of the members of the Competent Authority are from the professions such as fisheries or urban planning, which has limited capacity for integrated coastal management, and are urgent on getting into capacity development. Therefore, the following study assesses Taiwan's local government's integrated coastal management capabilities through the competency assessment framework provided by the United Nations Development Program as for bridging the gap between required capacity and existing capacity. The main findings of the study are: in terms of Institutional arrangements, the scores of "incorporating stakeholders", "budgeting, management and execution", and "making policies and strategies" are lower. For leadership level and knowledge level, each item has a higher score than 3.30, which shows that local government personnel mostly agree with the leaders of integrated coastal management and have certain knowledge; and in terms of accountability, only "whether your organization has the ability to establish a strong vision of a responsible mechanism" has a lower score of 3.03, which shows that local government personnel also agree on the level of accountability. This shows that the current management and maintaining the status quo of the Competent Authority lacks of overall planning for future coastal use. The leaders of the existing coastal management authorities should form a cross-disciplinary team to fully plan for the coast for the future. In terms of training, there should be a coastal management authority to conduct central training in the first place, and subsidies to the local government. Therefore, we are able to gradually implement integrated coastal management.

Taiwan has advantages in the development of offshore wind power, as it has abundant wind energy resources at the seas. The local government has developed a series of measures to promote the development of wind power generation industry. The development of offshore wind farm in Taiwan, however, has to solve the problems that offshore wind farms are overlapping with some traditional fishing grounds and are unable to reach consensus with relevant stakeholders. This paper starts from the great potential of offshore wind power in Taiwan and the active promotion of the government, and analyses the impact and possible opportunities brought by offshore wind farm development to local fisheries, from the perspective of Zhanghua Area, a key area of development of offshore wind farm in Taiwan. This paper proposes that the local government in Taiwan should use marine spatial planning as a tool, through the comprehensive participation of government, developers, fishermen and other bodies, seeking the coexistence and prosperity of offshore wind farm and fisheries. Avoidance, compensation, and feedback, as well as communication and collaboration will be an important strategy to solve the conflicts of multiple use of the sea and to promote the development of marine renewable energy.

In this paper, the real-time problem of heat transfer model for continuous casting billets has been converted to an optimization problem of multiple time steps. In the optimization problem, the time steps as the optimal variables were constrained by the numerical stability. Furthermore, the objective function was defined by the relative calculation time, and the calculations were subject to the accuracy constraint determined by the maximum absolute temperature difference from the reference grid system. The optimization problem has been solved by particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, by introducing a penalty factor for the accuracy constraint. Results and corresponding analysis show that when the penalty factor is big enough, especially when it tends to positive infinity, the optimized time steps are only determined by the accuracy constraint, independent of the penalty factor and also computers.

With the growth of population and rapid development of economy in Taiwan, problems including the reduced number of marine habitats and increased sea pollution have continued to harm marine bio-resources and diversity. Although the Taiwanese government has established several kind of marine protected areas (MPAs) but the management performance is dissatisfactory. Therefore, the management arrangements of MPAs in Taiwan are discussed in this study, based on 3 institutional arrangement elements: governmental organization, legal basis, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). A questionnaire survey was administered to 4 groups (industrial, governmental, scholar, and NGO) to understand how these groups perceive the institutional arrangements of the management of MPAs in Taiwan. Finally, the institutional arrangements of the management of the MPAs discussed. The research findings showed that most survey participants believed that governmental organizations most required improvement, particularly in “monitoring standard” and “financial budget allotment.” Other than “stability,” the participants disapproved of the legal basis in the institutional arrangements of the management of MPAs. Among the 4 participating groups, only NGOs agreed that NGOs should be involved in the institutional arrangements of the management for MPAs in Taiwan. All 4 groups approved the institutional arrangements regarding “participation and cooperation,” and none of the 4 groups approved the institutional arrangements regarding “more responsible behavior.”

The Taiwanese government has actively proposed numerous policies in response to problems encountered by distant-water fisheries. However, an indicator framework for evaluating the performance of distant-water fishery policies does not exist. Therefore, this study established an indicator framework to evaluate the performance of the policies regarding the Taiwanese distant-water fishery. Based on a literature review and current fishery policies, we proposed 61 indicators. Three rounds of questionnaires using the Modified Delphi method were conducted that involved experts from industry, the government, and academia and 43 policy indicators were selected in the ecological, economic, social, and institutional dimensions according to the results. Because of limited data access, 30 indicators were selected as the final indicators. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to analyze the weight value of each indicator before the indicators were aggregated. Finally, relevant indicators were used to analyze the performance of distant-water fishery policies. The results indicated that ecological policies performed exceptionally, achieving the policy goals of establishing a biological database, practically developing fishery resources, strengthening observation systems, and conducting international scientific research exchanges. The effects of the economic policies were not significant, indicating that the performance of this policy in promoting the marketing of distant-water fish catches and relevant fishery costs and subsidies require further improvement. Additionally, the effects of the social policies were not significant, suggesting that the performance of this policy in cultivating fishery experts and enhancing fisherman requires strengthening. Finally, the institutional policies achieved the goals of adjusting the structure of the distant-water fishery, expanding international cooperation, and maintaining regulations regarding international waters, thereby indicating that the institutional policy performance was optimal.

This study establishes an offshore and coastal fisheries policy indicator system to evaluate the performance of policies to achieve sustainable development in offshore and coastal fisheries. A modified Delphi method is used to establish this system, and the weights of indicators are calculated using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to aggregate indicators. Results show that ecological policies have not achieved their goals because production and catch per unit effort are decreasing. Indicators with respect to management efficiency have increased after the implementation of the buyback and off-fishing programs. However, net returns indicator, which is affected by increasing cost and production value, is stable. Due to inefficient management resulting from insufficient resources, indicators for the number of illegal fishing cases per year and the number of smuggled aquatic production incidents have increased. This shows that requirement for enhanced compliance is necessary. The objective for cultivating talents in fisheries has not been achieved because average wage for fishers is lower than the average civil wage, resulting in an increase in the hiring of foreign fishers.

Since the 1960s Taiwan has been a significant player in the global distant water tuna fisheries (DWTF). However, Taiwan's lack of political recognition has led some fisheries businesses to employ less conventional methods including Flags of Convenience (FOCs) in harvesting tuna resources. Meanwhile, Taiwan has been experiencing the painful cost of readjusted DWTF policies. This paper compares the readjusted policies in accordance with international management instruments and tuna compliance requirements (Compliance Agreement and UNFSA) and domestic laws are already undergoing adjustments to take these into account. This again demonstrates Taiwan's unique position in the international community: despite it not being a member of the United Nations, Taiwan spares no effort to ensure the sustainability of marine resources, and does its utmost to fulfill the responsibilities and duties of a Flag State.

The main aim of the research presented in this paper was to investigate ‘how to reduce the bluetooth discovery time in collaborative middleware based collaborative working environment (CWE), to enhance the communications of mobile users. The high level collaborative middleware is a research and technology development (RTD) challenge and one of most desirable medium to long term research outputs for CWEs. This research activity outlines a collaborative middleware module that has been developed on Smartphone technology and enables to reduce the discovery time of a multi-user collaborative working environment via a Bluetooth wireless communications network. To achieve this aim, it started with discussing the key design parameters, and then the design of collaborative middleware module with collaborative functionality; finally it is a comparison test to evaluate the impact of middleware. The result of the evaluation concludes the Bluetooth enabled collaborative middleware can reduce the discovery time in CWE.

Cationic polymerizations of p-methylstyrene (pMS) with H2O/AlCl3/triphenylamine (TPA) or triethylamine (TEA) initiating system were carried out in mixed solvents of n-hexane and dichloromethane at −80 ∼ −50 °C. The effects of TPA or TEA concentration, solvent polarity, polymerization temperature and time on monomer conversion, number-average molecular weight (Mn), molecular weight distribution (MWD, Mw/Mn), stereoregulatity and crystallinity of poly(p-methylstyrene) (PpMS) were investigated. The stereospecific cationic polymerization of p-methylstyrene could be achieved and high molecular weight (Mn = 116,000 ∼ 436,000 g mol−1) polymers with isotactic-rich segments (more than 75% of meso dyad) along macromolecular chains could be successfully synthesized. A possible mechanism for stereospecific cationic polymerization of pMS was proposed. The propagation proceeded via the dominant back-side attack and insertion of monomer from the growing ion paired species. The steric course of propagation was mainly determined by the tightness of the growing ion paired species and steric hindrance in counteranion. The resulting isotactic-rich PpMS could form crystal morphology with 10 ∼ 30 μm in size by flow-induced crystallization under pressure at 180 °C. A possible model for the aligning mechanism was sketched to describe crystallization and to explain the multi-melting peaks and lower glass transition temperatures of PpMS. This is the first example of stereospecific cationic polymerization of p-methylstyrene to get crystallizable polymers with such high molecular weights and isotacticity.

Cationic polymerization of styrene was conducted with 1-chloro-1-phenylethane (SCl)/AlCl 3 /phenyl methyl ether (PME) initiating system in hexane/CH 2 Cl 2 (60/40, v/v) at −80 °C. The kinetics for cationic polymerization of styrene was investigated by in-situ ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. The isotactic-rich polystyrene ( i PS) with m dyad of 81%, mm triad of 63% and mmmm pentad of 50% could be synthesized. Small amounts of crystalline regions in i PS formed after flow-induced crystallization and the crystallinity increased with increasing the molecular weight of i PS. Furthermore, the long-chain branched isotactic-rich polystyrene ( bi PS) with around 12 times higher molecular weight than that of corresponding i PS could be synthesized via cationic polymerization of styrene by introducing a small amount of isoprene (Ip) as a comonomer and branching sites as well. The possible mechanism for long-chain branching formation via intermolecular alkylation reaction by using Ip structural units along polymer chain as branching sites was proposed. The nucleation rate of bi PS could be greatly enhanced with increasing the content of branching sites, leading to an obvious increase in crystallinity. The multi-melting temperatures from 140 °C to 237 °C were observed in DSC curves of these PS products. The tensile strength of commercial atactic polystyrene could be improved remarkably from 41.4 MPa to 55.7 MPa by adding 16.7% of bi PS.

Most people in the East Asian region live in coastal zones, competing for limited space and marine resources in order to gain economic development. Conflicts between stakeholders and depredation of the ecosystem are frequent. Therefore, effective marine and coastal management (MCM) is necessary in this region. This study comparatively analyses institutional and legal basis of the MCM in Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan within the areas of state organisations, non-state organisations and legal basis using 12 performance indicators. The study show that there is a trend towards establishing specific high-level marine affairs committees presided by the prime minister or his deputy supported by human and financial resources will enable MCM plans to be implemented more effectively. In addition, a co-management approach in MCM has been advocated in recent years in all the countries analysed, with the exception of China. The management approach for ocean governance has gradually transformed from a total top-down approach to a dual-directional (both top-down and bottom-up). Finally, the importance of the collective consideration of the legal basis, state organisations and non-organisations because of their interactive functional dynamics, has been emphasised.

As a result of population growth and economic development, there has been a rapid increase in sea use around the island of Taiwan. Such increased use is placing pressure on the marine environment and its resources. Three draft territory laws (the Draft National Territory Planning Act, the Land Re-conservation Draft Bill, and the Draft Coastal Act) and the Local Government Act are neither consistent nor sufficiently comprehensive. Consequently, local Governments (municipalities and counties) experience difficulties in planning and managing their inshore waters. This paper will discuss the role local Governments plays in marine spatial planning and management. Local Government officials working in specialist marine affairs units from Kaohsiung and Keelung cities were surveyed to elicit their views with regards to management authority, management capacity and resources, officials’ commitment, and intergovernmental coordination/collaboration with respect to inshore waters. In-depth interviews were also conducted with local directors of specialist marine affairs units along with experts, to identify the causes of problems brought to light through the survey and to propose potential solutions to these problems. The study findings indicated that it is necessary to specify the marine spatial planning and management authority, as well as the scope of local Governments, in both the Coastal Act and Local Government Act. In order to sustainably develop Taiwan’s marine and coastal areas, it is important that the following four primary factors (management authority, management capacity and resources, officials’ commitment, and intergovernmental coordination/collaboration) be improved.

To sustain fishery development and ensure the supply of fish, the role that a sustainable development indicator system plays in the evaluation of fishery management performance is becoming increasingly important. A sustainable indicator system based on the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) framework was developed for local fisheries in Gungliau, Taiwan, between 1995 and 2003. Factor analysis and canonical correlation analysis were also applied to aggregate indicators and analyse the linkage of indicators. The most serious problem facing fishery system in Gungliau is conflicting local and higher levels of enforcement that result in the problems of effort, harvest and fleet age composition related to the pressure component. Fishery resources and the state of ecosystem were also affected by marine environmental change, especially by El Nino. Consequently, fishermen adjusted their effort and investment to the variation of Fishery resources, leading Gungliau fisheries to unsustainability.

This study was to molecular identify Prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV) occurring on lily. Lily corms were randomly selected and grown in the greenhouse. The total RNAs were extracted from younger leaves, and partial amplification of the CP gene was performed by RT-PCR with primer pairs specific for PNRSV. An expected cDNA fragment of about 450 bp was amplified from lily, cloned into pGEM-T-easy vector, sequenced, and shared 84.5-99.1% homology with the 27 PNRSV isolates reported previously at the nucleotide level, indicating that lily is a new natural host of PNRSV.

Using dynamic light scattering (DLS) and capillary dynamic viscoelasticity (DVE) analyzer, we investigated dilute (0.5 mg/ml) poly(diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) aqueous solution properties for three different molecular weights of PDADMACs mixed with various concentrations of NaCl. The dependence of PDADMAC molecular chain conformations in aqueous solutions on polymer molecular weight and NaCl concentration were studied. By analyzing dynamic shear viscosity η′(ω), viscoelastic relaxation times tr, and shear rate at tube wall ŕa(ω) of PDADMAC aqueous solutions in oscillatory flows, we proposed that polymer chain conformations varied with increasing shear frequency ω via the following steps: intra-polymer associations, dissociation of intra-polymer associations, stretching of polymer chains, inter-polymer aggregations, and dissociations of inter-polymer aggregations. The intra-polymer associations lowered the n′ exponent of storage modulus G′(ω) (G′(ω) ∼ ωn′) with n′

The non-Gaussian α-stable distribution is introduced to model impulsive noise. Based on the theory of fractional lower order statistics (FLOS), the fractional lower order cross-covariance (FLOCC) sequence for two re-ceived signals is obtained and the fractional lower order cross-covariance spectrum (FLOCCS) can be approached by taking a Fourier transform for the FLOCC sequence. When the FLOCCS is treated as a sequence in the time domain, the problem of multipath time delay estimation (TDE) may be converted into one on multi-frequencies estimation or di-rections of arrival estimation. Accordingly, the high resolution multipath TDE can be realized with the ESPRIT tech-nology. This idea on multipath TDE is referred to as FLOCCS-ESPRIT in this paper. Computer simulations show that this method has good performance both in a Gaussian noise and in an impulsive noise environment.

Sustainable fishery development indicator system (SFDIS) is a good reference that reflects fishery variations at different times and locations. It keeps the industry abreast of the latest developments and allows for timely revision of management policies and structures that could lead to its sustainable development. This study uses the Gungliau area in Taiwan as an example to evaluate the development of the SFDIS. This is the first time Factor Analysis is applied practically on the indicator aggregation. Results show that this indicator system reflects the time variation of each indicator and indicates sustainable trend at each developmental stage.