Do conventions still have relevance in the modern political world? Some call them glorified television infomercials for presidential candidates while others refer to them as admired pillars of American political history. Whichever viewpoints one identifies with, presidential conventions are interesting to study historically, and can be studied analytically. The following case studies examine the institution of the nominating convention: what they do, how they form, what they have accomplished and how they affect the voters. This study finds that conventions are still meaningful in American politics, particularly for affecting party unity, candidate image and, to a lesser degree, party platform.

Technology has become pervasive in society and classrooms today. However, studies show that most teachers are not yet comfortable integrating technology into their repertoire of instructional strategies (Education Week, 2005). National reports and standards documents have recognized that technology proficiency is essential for all students (International Society for Technology in Education, 2000; No Child Left Behind, 2002; U.S. Department of Education, 2004). Teacher instruction is a critical factor in maximizing the potential that educational technology has to impact student achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine how an exemplary elementary teacher uses technology to improve student learning and why she has chosen to integrate technology into her classroom instruction in the ways she has. A single-case design was used in this qualitative study. The researcher was the instrument used in the collection of data. Purposeful sampling was used in the selection of the study's participant, an exemplary elementary teacher who utilizes technology in her classroom. The participant in this research study was a certified elementary teacher. Her elementary principal and a school district administrator were also interviewed to provide additional perspectives to the case study. Personal interviews, observations, and document analysis were used to collect data. The findings of this study included examples of how the participating teacher used technology in her classroom. These findings included ways that she integrated technology into daily activities across of wide variety of curriculum content areas, and ways the classroom environment was designed to encourage interaction, communication, and cooperation as students worked on instructional activities that incorporated technology. The barriers of professional development, access, support, and time did not hamper the participating teacher's ability to integrate technology. Technology was used daily in the participating teacher's classroom for enhancing student work, easing the teacher's management and planning tasks, and communicating with parents and other faculty members. Additionally, I found that the participating teacher was motivated to use technology by several factors. Administrative support, the teacher's personal use of technology, and student engagement and motivation served as factors as to why the participating teacher integrated technology into her daily classroom instruction. Recommendations included: (a) incorporating educational technology into a variety of undergraduate teacher education courses, (b) including a variety of instructional strategies for integrating technology in methods courses of preservice teacher education programs, (c) studying further how to effectively reduce the most-noted barriers to technology integration - lack of professional development, access, support, and time, (d) requiring candidates in educational administration graduate programs to take an educational technology course, and (e) conducted further study to determine the link between the use of technology in a teacher's personal life and any increased classroom technology integration.

Adaptability is crucial in the engineering workplace, particularly for Black engineers. Job postings use different terms such as resiliency, agility, or flexibility to denote the importance of adaptability for a role. However, there is a lack of exploration into what adaptability means for individuals from racially marginalized backgrounds. For Black engineers, navigating work responsibilities is complicated by the social ramifications of their racial identity. Simply framing their efforts as adaptability overlooks the impact of racialization and the complex interplay of working conditions on career decisions. This study aimed to understand how being racialized as Black influences how Black engineers respond to changing working conditions. Working conditions encompass the tools used for work, the workplace environment, and the workforce composition. The central question for this study was: How do Black engineers respond to various working conditions encountered during the early stages of their engineering career? A multiple case study approach was employed, focusing on the experiences of eight early-career Black engineers. The participants were selected based on their self-identification as Black, regardless of ethnicity, considering the commonplace of racialization in the United States. Interviews and resumes were utilized to comprehensively capture their work experiences. Analysis revealed ten key characteristics of working conditions and five adaptability responses. These responses exhibited a temporal nature, leading to the development of sub-adaptability responses. Vignettes were crafted to contextualize participants' responses to salient working conditions. Participants sought to achieve work-life balance, derive meaning from their work, and have a sense of belonging in their careers. The perception of their ability to achieve these goals influenced the turnover intention of Black engineers within their organization. This study expands our understanding of factors influencing Black engineers' retention and informs prospective engineers of prioritized outcomes other Black engineers have used to navigate their careers. These findings can be used by organizations to inform the strategies they use to foster the retention and advancement of Black engineers in the engineering workforce. / Doctor of Philosophy / Adaptability is important for Blac engineers in the engineering workplace. Adaptability is denoted within job postings with different terms such as resiliency, agility, or flexibility. Even though adaptability is generally deemed to be important, there is a lack of exploration into what adaptability means for individuals from racially marginalized backgrounds. For Black engineers, navigating work responsibilities includes navigating and understanding the social ramifications of their racial identity. Therefore, simply framing the efforts of racially marginalized engineers as adaptability overlooks the impact of racialization and the complex interplay of working conditions on career decisions. This study aimed to understand how being racialized as Black influences how Black engineers respond to changing working conditions. Working conditions encompass the tools used for work, the workplace environment, and the workforce composition. The central question for this study was: How do Black engineers respond to various working conditions encountered during the early stages of their engineering career? A multiple case study approach was employed, focusing on the experiences of eight early-career Black engineers. Participants sought to achieve work-life balance, derive meaning from their work, and have a sense of belonging in their careers. The perception of their ability to achieve these goals influenced the turnover intention of Black engineers within their organization. Analysis revealed ten key characteristics of working conditions and five adaptability responses. This study expands our understanding of factors influencing Black engineers' retention and informs prospective engineers of prioritized outcomes other Black engineers have used to navigate their careers. These findings can be used by organizations to inform the strategies they use to foster the retention and advancement of Black engineers in the engineering workforce.

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Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學. / Title on spine. / Manuscript. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 1-32 (4th group)). / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue. / Chapter 第一章 --- 導言 --- p.1 / Chapter (一) --- 問題 --- p.1 / Chapter (二) --- 幾個概念的界定和闡釋 --- p.17 / Chapter (三) --- 方法和資料 --- p.32 / Chapter (四) --- 章節安排 --- p.42 / Chapter 第二章 --- 社區治革和地理環境 --- p.54 / Chapter 第三章 --- 農業集體化以前人力利用、農業技術和經濟狀況 --- p.65 / Chapter (一) --- 土地改革前 --- p.66 / Chapter （̐ơŁ） --- 人力低度利用 --- p.66 / Chapter （̐ơØ） --- 技術不發達 --- p.70 / Chapter （̐ơÐ） --- 人力利用的季節性 --- p.74 / Chapter （̐ơÞ） --- 地權集中和少農經濟 --- p.84 / Chapter (二) --- 土地改革後 --- p.93 / Chapter 第四章 --- 從家庭少農經濟到公社──「組織集約」的策略（Organization intensive）　 --- p.103 / Chapter (一) --- 全國性的背景資料　 --- p.103 / Chapter (二) --- 紅江村的組織變遷 --- p.114 / Chapter 第五章 --- 人力利用與農業現代化 --- p.143 / Chapter (一) --- 人力利用 --- p.144 / Chapter (二) --- 農業技術革新和農業現代化 --- p.150 / Chapter (三) --- 分期之描述　 --- p.171 / Chapter （̐ơŁ） --- 第一時期（一九五四´ؤ´ؤ一九五八年） --- p.171 / Chapter （̐ơØ） --- 第二時期（一九五九´ؤ´ؤ一九六三年） --- p.182 / Chapter （̐ơÐ） --- 第三時期（一九六四´ؤ´ؤ一九六八年） --- p.189 / Chapter （̐ơÞ） --- 第四時期（一九六九´ؤ´ؤ一九七三年） --- p.193 / Chapter 第六章 --- 大組織統籌之下，利用人力和促進技術之各項措施 --- p.201 / Chapter (一) --- 水利灌溉系統的建設和水利化的實境´ؤ´ؤ整合人力利用和農業現代化之要素之一 --- p.203 / Chapter (二) --- 精耕細作´ؤ´ؤ人力利用的出路和農業增產之重要因素　 --- p.209 / Chapter (三) --- 擴大耕地面積´ؤ´ؤ人力利用的出路之一 --- p.218 / Chapter (四) --- 農村工業和多種經營´ؤ´ؤ農村人力出路和農村經濟現代化之方向 --- p.223 / Chapter (五) --- 物化季節性´ؤ´ؤ整合農村人力利用和農業技術發展之一重要環節 --- p.241 / Chapter 第七章 --- 結論 --- p.255 / Chapter (一) --- 「組織集約」人力利用模型的一些問題 --- p.255 / Chapter (二) --- 「組織集約」人力動員的方法和技術´ؤ´ؤ社會心理學的命題：「工作刺激」（work lncentive）和「共產主義新人」的型塑 --- p.267 / Chapter (三) --- 組織擴大、結構功能分化、技術華新對農村社會分層的影響表： --- p.274

Transportation is one of the areas where Sweden could not yet manage to reduce the CO2 emissions. One solution that has been suggested to reduce the CO2 emissions in this sector is through the mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). However, mass EV adoption brings complications with it. Drivers behavior is a critical aspect since people often charge their car at home after work. This could negatively affect the evening load peak and thus cause a high impact on the electricity system. A survey was sent out to current private EV owners in Sweden, to learn about their charging schedules, driving patterns and battery capacity. 226 of 403 replied to the survey which gave a survey reply rate of 56 %. The goal of this work was to estimate the future adoption of EVs, based on the current trends and national targets in order to develop different scenarios. With the scenarios in mind, the projected consumption of EVs for different periods of the day, the magnitude and time of the peak load as well as the overall consumption and CO2 reduction per year were calculated. Three scenarios were analyzed with 96 000, 650 000 and 1 000 000 electric vehicles where 25 % are defined to be running entirely on electricity in the middle and high penetration scenario since even plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, PHEV where included. The scenarios are estimated as the possible situation in 2030 and a simulation is done in MATLAB for summer and winter cases as well as weekdays and weekends. Results showed that the charging pattern of the EV drivers would cause a peak load at around 20.00 where the peak load from the overall household consumptions also takes place. The highest consumption takes place during the weekend cases but there were no significant difference between summer and winter. For example the peak consumption of the EVs was 150 MWh during winter and weekends at 20.00. The annual consumption of the EVs would be 238 GWh, 342 GWh and 616 GWh for the low, middle and high penetration scenario. By analyzing the current installed power of renewable energy sources in Sweden, it was found that the demand for EVs could be met by renewables entirely today. It was also found that using EVs instead of conventional fossil fueled cars can save up to 264 Mton CO2 for the low penetration scenario, 447 Mton for the middle penetration scenario and 688 Mton for the high penetration scenario. Different assumptions could have caused deviation from the actual result and it was found during the implementation of the simulation that the survey questions could be improved for future surveys. It was concluded that mass adoption of EVs is possible in terms of electricity production and installed power. However, increase in the evening peak led to the conclusion that balancing of the grid is necessary for example through Vehicle-to-grid (V2G), controlled charging or energy storage. Keywords: MATLAB, electricity consumption, EV, CO2 emissions, simulation, 2030, Scenario, penetration level

ITC/USA 2006 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Second Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 23-26, 2006 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / This paper presents a case study of the commercialisation of an ad-hoc wireless network technology from a subsidiary of a multinational company. The paper does not disclose any intellectual property specifics, the organisations or individuals involved. Instead the paper focuses on generic issues associated with technology transfer; exploration of market opportunities, market validation, the identification of a novel business model and economic validation. The paper wraps the case study within the academic context of commercialisation providing substantive literature sources, tools and techniques for readers faced with similar challenges; tools and techniques that can be applied irrespective of the underlying technology.

BACKGROUND:Translational medicine is attracting much attention worldwide and many translational research organizations (TROs) have been established. In China, translational medicine has developed rapidly, but faces many challenges. This study was aimed at exploring these challenges faced by emerging TROs in China.METHOD:A qualitative, multiple case study approach was used to assess the challenges faced by TROs in China. Data were collected between May and August 2012.RESULTS:Eight cases were identified. Overall, four themes that characterized TROs in China emerged from analyses: 1. objectives, organizer, and funding resources, 2. participating partners and research teams, 3. management, and 4. achievements. All TROs had objectives related to translating basic discovery to clinic treatment and cultivating translational researchers. In terms of organizer and funding resources, 7 out of 8 TROs were launched only by universities and/or hospitals, and funded mostly through research grants. As for participating partners and multidisciplinary research teams, all but one of the TROs only involved biomedical research institutions who were interested in translational research, and characterized as clinical research centers / 7 out of 8 TROs involved only researchers from biomedicine and clinical disciplines and none involved disciplines related to education, ethnicity, and sociology, or engaged the community. Current management of the TROs were generally nested within the traditional research management paradigms, and failed to adapt to the tenets of translational research. Half of the TROs were at developmental stages defined as infrastructure construction and recruitment of translational researchers.CONCLUSIONS:TROs in China face the challenge of attracting sustainable funding sources, widening multidisciplinary cooperation, cultivating multi-disciplinary translational researchers and adapting current research management to translational research. Greater emphasis should be placed on increasing multidisciplinary cooperation, and innovating in education programs to cultivate of translational researchers. Efforts should be made to reform research management in TROs, and establish sustainable funding resources.

In the UK, urban parks face a precarious future and, with projected cuts of over 65% to local authority discretionary funding (Local Government Association, 2012:2), it is ever more important to understand their value. This study interrogates the value of these resources from the perspective of the individual and, through a mixed method comparative case study of two community parks in Leeds, West Yorkshire, identifies four key challenges to existing framings of their significance. Drawing on primary observational, social survey and interview data, boundaries constructed between forms of value are, firstly, problematized with fluidity recognised between use and non-use aspects. Secondly, a range of previously-omitted past-related values are identified. Negative elements of significance are, then, thirdly, highlighted as heavily interwoven with positive accounts of importance and emphasised as key omissions in prior representations of value. Before, finally, value is stressed as spatially relative, with comparison with other leisure resources noted as an inherent facet of accounts. Taken together, these challenges demarcate an individual perspective of value as notably distinct from those levelled at other scales, such as the firm or community, as it emphasised that, from this perspective, the value of a resource must be rethought as a relational property created in the interaction between people and their environment, rather than an absolute property assigned to a space. Organisations, such as Nesta (Neal, 2013:21) have emphasised a need to ‘rethink' the funding and management of urban parks, moving towards “mixed funding models”, incorporating some level of community voluntarism. This assumed involvement is, however, premised on community engagement which is far from certain. As such, there is a pressing need to understand the value attached to urban parks to understand the scope for expectations of voluntarism to be truly fulfilled.

This dissertation describes health care delivery in a Ryan White Program (RWP) HIV clinic, with a focus on medical home care, using the Bayesian Case Study Method (BCSM). The RWP funds medical care for uninsured HIV patients and Pappas and colleagues (2014) suggested enhanced HIV care build upon medical home models of care rooted in the RWP. However, little research describes how RWP clinics operate as medical homes. This study developed the BCSM to describe medical home care at a RWP clinic. The BCSM combines a case study framework with Bayesian statistics for a novel approach to mixed method, descriptive studies. Roberts (2002) and Voils (2009) used mixed-method Bayesian approaches and this dissertation contributes to this work. For this study, clinic staff and patients participated in interviews and surveys. I used Bayes’ Theorem to combine interview data, by use of subjective priors, with survey data to produce Bayesian posterior means that indicate the extent to which medical home care was provided. Subjective priors facilitate the inclusion of valuable stakeholder belief in posteriors. Using the BCSM, posterior means succinctly describe qualitative and quantitative data, in a way other methods of mixing data do not, which is useful for decision makers. Posterior means indicated that coordinated, comprehensive, and ongoing care was provided at the clinic; however, accessible care means were lower reflecting an area in need of improvement. Interview data collected for subjective priors captured detailed service delivery descriptions. For example, interview data described how medical and support services were coordinated and highlighted the role of social determinants of health (SDH). Namely, coordinated and comprehensive services that addressed SDH, such as access to housing, food, and transportation, were necessary for patients to focus on their HIV and utilize healthcare. This case study addressed a gap in the literature regarding descriptions of how RWP clinics provide medical home care. For domains with high posterior means, the associated interview data can be used to plan HIV care in non-RWP settings. Future research should describe other RWP HIV medical homes so this information can be used to plan enhanced HIV care across the healthcare system.