Problem: An analysis of the compatibility of global airline alliances with EC- competition policy including merger policy and EC-competition law. Is the Commission’s current approach to prohibit certain restrictive global alliances the optimal solution to the problem of certain alliances’ anti-competitive effects? Can other conclusions be drawn by taking an approach based on efficiency arguments that recommend a trade-off between the efficiency gains and the inevitable anti-competitive effects of the alliances? Will the results of the latter approach be in the public interest and does it conform to EC- competitionpolicy including merger policy and EC-competition law? Purpose: There are three aims of this paper; two intermediate aims, which are to introduce the complex nature of global airline alliances to legal practitioners, in particular the alliances’ impact on competition in the EU aviation market, and to illustrate the Commission’s assessment of the relevant market and its proposed measures to deal with the restriction of competition. Then my intention is to develop an alternative approach – “the efficiency policy” – and investigate its conformity to EC-competition policy including merger policy and legislation. Limitation: The question on what effects global airline alliances have on competition is naturally a global question, which is dealt with by competition authorities in many countries. In this paper no attempt is made to compare the opinions of and the measures taken by authorities throughout the world; instead the intention is to analyse the current EC-competition policy and merger policy on the subject. Method: In the descriptive part I will take a strictly positive approach and conduct an ordinary empirical research, i.e., to collect and present relevant legal and economic material that explain the legal as well as the economic aspects of global airline alliances. In the analytical part my intention is to analyze the Commission’s current approach towards Global airline alliances and to show how this has effected its decisions. I will then discuss the pros and cons of this approach with respect to the different interests that are to be protected by EC-competition law. Finally, I will develop an alternative approach"the efficiency policy"and discuss whether it conforms to EC- competition policy including merger policy and EC-competition law. Results: Global airline alliances bring efficiency gains, which can be distributed to consumers, communities and other parts of society. Nevertheless, the formation of global airline alliances will distort competition in some of the relevantmarkets. The Commission, which appears to have assessed the relevant market correctly, will not allow competition to be distorted. However, the remedies of the Commission seem to be inadequate. The reason appears to be a conflict between the goal of upholding"workable competition"and facilitating the efficiency gains that global airline alliances bring to society. This problem may be solved by applying another competition policy based on efficiency, which would allow airlines to defend decreased competition in terms of efficiency. However, due to the structure of Article 81 of the EC- Treaty, an"efficiency defence"cannot be allowed under that Article. Nevertheless, there is a possibility that it can be allowed under the Merger Regulation.

This thesis explores the possibility of formulating an intermediate approach towards global justice. The desired approach should be intermediate in the sense that it is located in the normative space between the two rather exterme philosophical positions of cosmopolitanism and liberal nationalism for reasons explained in the thesis. As it turns out in the argumentation within this thesis it is an appropriate identification of the facts that can be thought morally relevant in the context of global justice which is of crucial importance for achieving this task. This is the case since such morally relevant facts, as will be shown, are decisive not only for making definite sense of the ideals at stake with regard to the issues of global inequality and absolute poverty. They furthermore also are essential for determining normatively appropriate and empirically effective obligations for working towards a more just world.

In the past 10 years, the automobile market of Taiwan has been about 400,000 automobiles per year, and the average output per automaker in Taiwan has been in the range from 30,000 to 50,000 automobiles per year. According to the relevant studies, to reach the goal of economic size of production, 100,000 automobiles should be produced per model per year and the total output of an automaker should be more than 400,000 automobiles. There are 10 automakers in Taiwan. What are the economic and trade policies that have brought about so many automakers in Taiwan? Is this an example of extreme loosening of the control of the automobile industry or if this has something to do with the big profit margin in the industry? Taiwan has entered the WTO; the economic and trade policies of Taiwan should be so set that they can further the development of the automobile industry of Taiwan in the Chinese market and other parts of the world by utilizing the trade advantages of Taiwan. In this study, we look into the changes of the economic and trade policies of Taiwan in terms of their impacts on the automobile industry of Taiwan; we also try to assess the causes of such changes. What are the policies that have caused the evolution of the automobile industry of Taiwan? Why can¡¦t the automakers in Taiwan develop their own brand like the manufacturers in the microelectronic industry, motorcycle industry and bicycle industry in Taiwan? In this study, from the economic perspective and the perspective of the relevant policies, we examine the consumer market and buyers¡¦ preferences on the demand side; while, on the supply side, we look into the competition strategies adopted by the automakers and their competitiveness through the R & D, production technologies and competitiveness of these automakers. We also examine the impacts of the relevant government policies on the automobile industry and the challenges posed by Taiwan¡¦s entry into the WTO. Our aim is to understand the problems and difficulties found in the government policies and the evolution of the automobile industry of Taiwan so that we infer how the government policies will be evolved into and the crucial factors that have caused the changes in the policies. In this study, we look into how the crucial factors have caused the changes in the automobile industry. Through the previously described approaches and the assessment of the policies relating to the automobile industry, we can identify the successful and failure experience in the past and infer the competitive advantages and the policies in the future. Also, through the simulation of the optimal development direction of the policies relating to the automobile industry, we bring forth the future development direction of the automobile industry for the reference of the relevant government agencies so as to create an environment that allows the manufacturers of the industry to establish production facilities in China and to enter other markets of the world and so that the goals of autonomous product development and the sustainable development of the automobile industry of Taiwan may be reached and the products of these manufacturers may be more competitive in terms of the global market.

Presently, over five million English-language learners (ELLs) are being educated in U.S. schools, and by the year 2020, more than half of the public school system population in the U.S. will be from families whose native language is not English (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2005). Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) (Ladson-Billings, 1995) provides a framework for classroom teachers to meet the needs of diverse learners. This ethnographic case study describes what CRP looks like for young ELLs and how a pre-kindergarten school teacher and her bilingual paraprofessional successfully implement CRP. This study: (a) examined the manifestation of culturally relevant pedagogy in a pre-kindergarten classroom for English-language learners, and (b) investigated the ways two teachers promoted three central tenets of CRP in their pre-kindergarten classroom: (1) academic success; (2) cultural competence; and (3) critical consciousness. The research questions were explored by collecting fieldnotes during 20 classroom observations, 3 individual interview transcripts, 3 individual member-checking transcripts, and 15 classroom documents. Findings were based on an open-coding analysis process and a priori coding to demonstrate examples of culturally relevant pedagogical practices and beliefs. The data suggests five major principles of CRP for young ELLs: (1) Oral multilingual classroom language experiences for young children occurred frequently; (2) Monolingual and bilingual teacher collaboration was beneficial for teachers and young children’s language and cultural development; (3) Children’s funds of knowledge were employed and integrated into classroom learning experiences; (4) Peer-to-peer interactions promoted language learning, literacy, and cultural understandings; and (5) Teachers’ and children’s acknowledgement of cultural similarities and differences were built upon. Furthermore, teachers promoted academic success by not accepting student failure and making students responsible for the academic success of their peers; cultural competence is established when teachers encourage children to interact effectively with others from different cultures; and critical consciousness is fostered when children know their authentic stories, are able to stand up for themselves, and ask questions about the world around them. These findings provide a greater understanding of CRP for young ELLs, specifically in a pre-kindergarten context, and hold important implications on future research on CRP.

In contrast to the diversity of students, the implementation of federal policies has created a push for standardization in pedagogy and curriculum that serve culturally and linguistically diverse students. Effects include narrowing of curriculum and pedagogy, proliferation of prescriptive literacy programs, increased high-stakes testing, and negative effects on teachers’ identity, autonomy, and desire to teach. Simultaneously, teaching prospective teachers how to construct culturally relevant curriculum and pedagogy is emphasized as a vital part of teacher preparation. However, research shows that even when teachers leave programs with preparation for culturally relevant teaching, initial jobs and local contexts shape and constrain teachers’ ideologies, agency, goals, and practice connected to teaching diverse students. In response to research, this study was designed to investigate how novice Teach For America teachers with an espoused culturally relevant pedagogy ideology implement a scripted literacy program in urban classrooms. A multiple case study design guided data collection and analysis. Data collection included interviews, observations, observation debriefs, visual representations, documents, and teaching artifacts. The data were analyzed using a constant comparative approach and Grounded Theory techniques. These teachers were constrained and influenced by several institutional and contextual factors, yet were able to negotiate their educational beliefs with the requirements of their mandated scripted literacy program to enact tenets of culturally relevant teaching. The findings suggest teacher preparation programs need to have a conceptual framework embedded in coursework and field experiences that empowers beginning teachers to negotiate the sociopolitical constraints of their school context to meet the needs of students.

External world skeptics argue that we have no knowledge of the external world. Contextualist theories of knowledge attempt to address the skeptical problem by maintaining that arguments for skepticism are effective only in certain contexts in which the standards for knowledge are so high that we cannot reach them. In ordinary contexts, however, the standards for knowledge fall back down to reachable levels and we again are able to have knowledge of the external world. In order to address the objection that contextualists confuse the standards for knowledge with the standards for warranted assertion, Keith DeRose appeals to the knowledge account of warranted assertion to argue that if one is warranted in asserting p, one also knows p. A skeptic, however, can maintain a context-invariant view of the knowledge account of assertion, in which case such an account would not provide my help to contextualism.

Bakgrund: Balanced Scorecard (BSC) har blivit ett populärt sätt att mäta ett företags prestationer, då det inkluderar både finansiella och ickefinansiella mål och mått. Samtidigt ses styrkortet som ett verktyg för att kommunicera företagets strategi och skapa en förståelse i hela organisationen för vad företaget vill uppnå. Trots att BSC är ett mycket framgångsrikt begrepp saknas det empiriska studier kring hur modellen upplevs och används av anställda på operativ nivå och hur styrningsverktyget påverkar dem. Syfte: Undersökningens syfte är att beskriva hur BSC används på operativ nivå i ett företag samt förklara hur strategi och målformulering uppfattas av individen och påverkar dennes beteende. Vidare är undersökningens syfte att utveckla en modell för att öka den operativa relevansen i BSC. Slutsats: För att uppnå de fördelar som BSC kan erbjuda krävs en förankring i hela organisationen samt ett engagemang och involvering i styrkortsprocessen från alla anställda. Vi anser att problemen med BSC som uppkommer många gånger kan härledas till svårigheter att tydliggöra och att koppla strategin och BSC till vad individen arbetar med i sin vardag. För att skapa ett operativt relevant BSC krävs det att organisationen, enligt oss, arbetar med sex grundläggande förutsättningar; Delaktighet, Begriplighet, Lokal förankring, Enhetlighet, Påverkbarhet och Ledningens medverkan. Dessa utgör en iterativ process som skall främja lärande och kunskapsdelning för BSC inom organisationen. Dessa begrepp kommer att underlätta företags strategi- och styrkortsarbete då de tydliggör hur företag kan uppnå ett operativt relevant BSC. / Background: Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has become a popular way to measure the performance of a company. One reason is that it includes both financial and non-financial goals and measures. BSC is also seen as an instrument to communicate the strategy of the company and create an understanding for what the company wants to achieve. Even though BSC is a successful management tool there is a lack of empirical studies concerning how the model is perceived and used by employees on an operational level in an organization. Aim: The purpose of this study is to describe how BSC is used at an operational level in a company and to explain how strategy and formulation of goals is perceived by the individuals and how it affects their behavior. Furthermore is the purpose of the study to develop a model to increase the operational relevance in BSC. Results: BSC has to be deeply-rooted in the entire organization to achieve the benefits that the scorecard offers. There has to be an engagement and involvement from all employees in the strategy- and scorecard process. We see that persistent problems with BSC many times derive from the difficulty in clarifying and connect the strategy and the scorecard to the individual’s daily work. To create a scorecard which is relevant on an operational level the organization needs to work with six fundamental concepts; Participation, Comprehensibility, Local connection, Uniformity, Influence and Participation from managers. Together these six concepts create an iterative process which will enable knowledge sharing and learning about BSC within the organization. The concepts will facilitate both the strategy process and the scorecard work. They will also clarify how a company can reach a scorecard which is more operationally relevant.

The cycle space of a strongly connected graph has a basis consisting of directed circuits. The concept of relevant circuits is introduced as a generalization of the relevant cycles in undirected graphs. A polynomial time algorithm for the computation of a minimum weight directed circuit basis is outlined. (author's abstract) / Series: Preprint Series / Department of Applied Statistics and Data Processing

The main purpose of this study is to examine the perceived decision-relevant information (PDRI) as an intervening variable between two kinds of management accounting systems - broad scope and aggregation (broad scope MAS/aggregation MAS) and managerial performance. This study also examines the impact of strategy types (differentiation and low cost strategies) on the relationships between broad scope MAS/aggregation MAS and PDRI, and between PDRI and managerial performance. For testing the 18 hypotheses, this study mainly employs the path analysis, and adopts a questionnaire survey sampling from plant managers and their subordinate in Taiwan¡¦s electronic companies listed in Taiwan Stock Exchange Market. Deriving from the 112 effective matched responses, the study reveals the following results: 1. Both the relationships between broad scope MAS and managerial performance, and between aggregation MAS and managerial performance are positive. 2. There is a full mediating effect of PDRI between broad scope MAS and managerial performance. In which, the relationship between broad scope MAS and PDRI is positive, and the relationship between PDRI and managerial performance is also positive. 3. There is a partial mediating effect of PDRI between aggregation MAS and managerial performance. In which, the relationships between aggregation MAS and PDRI, and PDRI and managerial performance are positive. 4. When companies tend to adopt a differentiation strategy, there is a full mediating effect of PDRI between broad scope MAS and managerial performance. In which, the relationship between broad scope MAS and PDRI is positive, and the relationship between PDRI and managerial performance is also positive. Besides, when companies tend to adopt a differentiation strategy, the full mediating effect is more pronounced than that of the overall sample companies. 5. When companies tend to adopt a low cost strategy, there is not a mediating effect of PDRI between broad scope MAS and managerial performance. In which, there isn¡¦t a relationship between broad scope MAS and PDRI, but, the relationship between PDRI and managerial performance is still positive. 6. Comparing with the low cost strategy, when companies tend to adopt a differentiation strategy, under the broad scope MAS as antecedent variable, the positive relationship between broad scope MAS and PDRI is stronger, but, the positive relationship between PDRI and managerial performance is not stronger. 7. When companies tend to adopt a differentiation strategy, there is a full mediating effect of PDRI between aggregation MAS and managerial performance. In which, the relationship between aggregation MAS and PDRI is positive, and the relationship between PDRI and managerial performance is also positive. 8. When companies tend to adopt a low cost strategy, there is also a full mediating effect of PDRI between aggregation MAS and managerial performance. In which, the relationship between aggregation MAS and PDRI is positive, and the relationship between PDRI and managerial performance is also positive. 9. Comparing with the low cost strategy, when companies tend to adopt a differentiation strategy, under the aggregation MAS as antecedent variable, the positive relationship between aggregation MAS and PDRI is not stronger, and the positive relationship between PDRI and managerial performance is not stronger either. 10. Strategy type is not associated with two kinds of MAS. That is, no matter differentiation strategy or low cost strategy that company tends to adopt, both strategies can not impact the level of using broad scope MAS or aggregation MAS by managers. From above results, this study provides important management implications, and presents contributions for academy in researches and suggestions for business in practice. Finally, the research limitations and possibly future researches are presented.

<p>This thesis intends to analyze and clarify the relevant market within air passenger transport. Further the thesis intends to investigate if there is any difference in air passenger transport in accordance to more general business. The definition of the relevant market is an essential step in order to establish a breach under European competition law. The relevant market includes the relevant product market and the relevant geographic market. The fundamental issue in the relevant product market is whether products are considered to be substitutable and can constitute the same market. The Commission has set a notice which includes methods and criterias and serves as guidelines to courts and companies to define the relevant market. The notice is however not binding for courts. The CJ have developed implementation of the criterias which it tends to refer to even if it is a different branch, however a case-by-case based definition is needed. The definition of the relevant market is based on three main criterias: demand substitutability, supply substitutability and potential competition. Even though the supply substitutability seems not be implemented in a further extension in more general branches, it seems to be of greater importance when defining the relevant market within air passenger transport. The air passenger transport has also established a test called base of origin and base of destination which includes an analysis of price, travel frequencies, comfort of the journey, transfer time to terminals and differences in the qualities and quantities in airports.  However according to air passenger transport, travel sequences seems to be the criteria that courts focus most on.</p>