Understanding mortality patterns is an essential pre-requisite for guiding public health action and for supporting development of evidence-based policy. However, such information is not sufficiently available in Vietnam. Mortality statistics and causes of death are solely collected from health facilities while most deaths occur at home without the presence of health professionals. Facility-based data cannot represent what happened in the wider community. This thesis studies the patterns and burdens of mortality as well as their relationships with socio-economic status in rural Vietnam. The overall aim is to contribute to the improvement of the current system of mortality data collection in the country for the purposes of public health planning and priority setting. The study was carried out within the framework of an ongoing Demographic Surveillance System (DSS) in Bavi district, Hatay province, northern rural Vietnam. This study used a verbal autopsy (VA) approach to identify cause of death in a cohort of approximately 250,000 person- years over a five-year period from 1999 to 2003. During the five year study, a total of 1,240 deaths were recorded and VA was successfully completed for 1,220 cases. Results revealed that VA was an appropriate and useful method for ascertaining cause of death in this rural Vietnamese community where specific data were otherwise scarce. The mortality pattern reflected a transitional pattern of disease in which the leading cause of death was cardiovascular diseases (CVD), followed by neoplasms, infectious and parasitic diseases, and external causes, accounting for 28.9%, 14.5%, 11.2%, and 9.8%, respectively. In terms of premature mortality, there were 85 and 55 Years of Life Lost (YLL) per 1,000 population for males and females respectively. The largest contributions to YLL were CVDs, malignant neoplasms, unintentional injuries, and perinatal and neonatal causes. In general, men had higher mortality rates than women for all mortality categories. In adults of 20 years and above, mortality rates increased substantially with age, and showed similar age effects for all mortality categories with the strongest association for non-communicable diseases (NCD). Education was an important factor for survival in general, and high economic status seemed to benefit men more than women. Compared with cancer and other NCD causes, higher CVD rates were observed among males, the elderly, and those without formal education, using a Cox proportional hazards model. This study is an initial effort to provide information on mortality patterns in a community using longitudinal follow-up of a dynamic cohort. Continuing the study using the VA approach as part of routine data collection in the setting will help to show trends in mortality patterns for the community over time, which may be useful for priority setting and health planning purposes, not only locally but also at the national level. Further analyses are needed to understand mortality inequality across all ages to have a comprehensive picture of mortality burdens in the setting. Validation studies and further standardization of VA methods should be carried out whenever possible to improve the performance and extension of the technique.

This thesis examines ways of establishing cause of death, assessing trends in mortality, and identifying factors that affect mortality and survival among the different population groups in rural and semi-urban Ethiopia. These data are important for health care planning; however, such vital data are unavailable in many developing countries. The study was conducted in Butajira Rural Health Program Demographic Surveillance Site, Ethiopia, where data collection on vital events and related research has been conducted for the last 20 years. This thesis used a cohort and a case referent study preceded by Focus Group Discussion. It also employed a verbal autopsy procedure to identify causes of death. The cohort component used 18 years of surveillance data (1987-2004). The prospective case referent study, carried out in the years 2003-2005, was used to complement the mortality analysis and focused particularly on issues related to household decision making, social capital, and economic status. The main subgroups included were children under-five years old, adults 15-64, and the elderly 65 years and above. Cause of death was ascertained using the Physicians’ Review and InterVA methods. Food shortage and epidemics affected the modest downward trend of mortality. There was a general similarity between the Physicians’ Review and InterVA methods in identifying the major causes of death. About 60% of the deaths were due to pneumonia/sepsis, pulmonary tuberculosis, malaria, and diarrhoea disease/malnutrition. The InterVA method was cheaper and more consistent. Higher rates of HIV/AIDS (11%), tuberculosis (18%), and cardiovascular (9%) mortality were noted in urban areas compared to rural areas. Consistent higher mortality was found in rural areas. Women were disadvantaged by residence and advanced age. Place of residence, illiteracy, widowhood, and not owning a house affected men and women differently, indicating a possible need for gender-specific interventions. Children and women survival is affected by household decision-making; this means efforts to improve women’s involvement in household decision-making (women empowerment) might improve child and women survival in poor settings. Many factors that significantly affect mortality can only be controlled by concerted efforts to improve health and overall development.

Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) is not a completely new phenomenon, yet an idea whose time has truly come. To have commercial organizations cooperate with charity organizations for mutual profit is a "win-win-win" situation. The company gets added value to its brand, the charity organization gets to collect more money that it otherwise wouldn't and the customer gains a feeling that he or she has contributed to the society. The purpose of this thesis is to study how a company, in practice, works with CRM marketing. How do they choose which charity organization to work with,what type of product is most appropriate to market with CRM and how is the CRM campaign designed? A theoretical model is then formed to answer these questions, after a thorough research of relevant theory on the subject. Through a qualitative multiple case study we thereafter studied this at three large companies on the Swedish market, ICA, Kellogg's and Lindex. Our findings showed that all three companies work very similar with these issues. They cooperate with large well known charity organizations and they think that it's very important that the product and the cause match each other. The products are consistently low involvement products, which is also shown in the theoretical model. The CRM campaign lasts for a shorter period of time and the message is clear so it fast and easy will reach the customers.

American Express initiated a new marketing strategy twenty-five years ago. Forevery new card user the company donated one cent for the recovery of the Statueof Liberty. The success of the campaign exceeds the expectations. This strategywhere a company declares to spend a defined amount of money for a special causein order to push up its sales is called Cause-Related Marketing. Now more andmore companies use the cause-related marketing strategy as a way out of saturatedmarkets and growing consumer awareness. Billions of dollars are spent every yearin cause campaigns. Because it is a relatively new approach many researches has shown interest in thismarketing communication strategy. However, there is still lack in the field ofcause-related marketing and especially in the consumer part. This is also the field of interest for this dissertation and in particular how doescause-relates marketing strategy shape consumer attitude, perception and buyingbehaviour? In order to find out the answer of this question we relied on differenttheories and in addition we conducted a questionnaire among international students. The results, even though restricted trough the sample, showed that there is aconnection between the cause-related marketing and buying behaviour andattitude. Consumers are more likely to support companies which are engaged incause campaigns and tend to develop positive attitude toward this company and itsproducts. The research was limited to sample of students who took part in thequestionnaire. A further investigation in this field could deliver deeperinformation and be useful for companies and researchers in the field of marketingcommunication and marketing strategies.

Common cause failures (CCF) are a significant contributor to risk in complex technological systems, such as nuclear power plants. Many probabilistic parametric models have been developed to quantify the systems subject to the CCF. Existing models include the beta factor model, the multiple Greek letter model, the basic parameter model, the alpha factor model and the binomial failure rate model. These models are often only capable of providing a point estimate, when there are limited CCF data available. Some recent studies have proposed a Bayesian approach to quantify the uncertainties in CCF modeling, but they are limited in addressing the uncertainty in the common failure factors only. This thesis presents a multivariate Poisson model for CCF modeling, which combines the modeling of individual and common cause failures into one process. The key idea of the approach is that failures in a common cause component group of n components are decomposed into superposition of k (>n) independent Poisson processes. Empirical Bayes method is utilized for simultaneously estimating the independent and common cause failure rates which are mutually exclusive. In addition, the conventional CCF parameters can be evaluated using the outcomes of the new approach. Moreover, the uncertainties in the CCF modeling can also be addressed in an integrated manner. The failure rate is estimated as the mean value of the posterior density function while the variance of the posterior represents the variation of the estimate. A MATLAB program of the Monte Carlo simulation was developed to check the behavior of the proposed multivariate Poisson (MVP) model. Superiority over the traditional CCF models has been illustrated. Furthermore, due to the rarity of the CCF data observed at one nuclear power plant, data of the target plant alone are insufficient to produce reliable estimates of the failure rates. Data mapping has been developed to make use of the data from source plants of different sizes. In this thesis, data mapping is combined with EB approach to partially assimilate information from source plants and also respect the data of the target plant. Two case studies are presented using different database. The results are compared to the empirical values provided by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC).

This thesis describes the research conducted on the use of historical performance data in assessing the financial risk for a power distribution utility in a performance based regulation (PBR) regime. The historical utility data used in this research are taken from the Canadian Electrical Association (CEA) annual reports. The individual utility data in these reports are confidential and only provided to the participating utilities. Thirteen utilities that participate in the CEA data reporting activity agreed to provide their individual utility data for the research described in this thesis. These utilities are anonymous and are referred to by numerical designations in accordance with the CEA protocol. This research could not have been conducted without the support of these utilities. The objectives of the research described in this thesis are to examine and analyze the variations in the annual performance indices of the thirteen participating utilities and the aggregated systems including the overall indices and the cause code contributions, and to examine the possible utilization of historic utility reliability indices to create suitable reward/penalty structures in a PBR protocol. The potential financial risk and actual financial payment analyses for these selected utilities are conducted using their historical performance data imposed on a number of possible reward/penalty structures developed in this thesis. An approach to recognize adverse utility performance in the form of Major Outage Years (MOY) is developed and the influence of the MOY performance in PBR decision making is examined.

Ce mémoire se propose d'examiner la guerre civile en Sierra Leone qui s'est déroulée de 1991 à 2002. Cet événement est extrêmement complexe, voire même unique, en raison de son histoire particulière. Les sources du conflit sont variées et ont des causes politiques, sociologiques, économiques et historiques. Pourquoi le conflit sierra-léonais a-t-il duré pendant plus de dix ans et cela malgré de nombreux efforts visant à mettre un terme au conflit? Afin de répondre à cette question, ce mémoire analyse les différentes dimensions de la guerre civile en Sierra Leone. Il débute par un survol historique afin de comprendre l'origine du conflit. Ensuite, il examine la fragilité de l'État sierra-léonais pendant la guerre et tente d'expliquer pourquoi la faiblesse de l'État a causé l'émergence des forces rebelles. Il se penche ensuite sur l'enjeu du diamant dans le conflit, puis se termine par une analyse des aspects internationaux qui ont influé sur le déroulement de la guerre en Sierra Leone, y compris l'instabilité régionale en Afrique de l'Ouest, le financement des rebelles, le manque de soutien de la part de la communauté internationale, ainsi que les différentes interventions régionales, britanniques et onusiennes. Malgré le nombre important de facteurs qui ont contribué à la poursuite du conflit, ce mémoire prétend que c'est la fragilité de l'État qui en est la cause majeure. En particulier, cette fragilité repose sur l'absence de structures suffisamment fortes pour maintenir l'ordre en Sierra Leone pendant la guerre. Tous les autres facteurs auraient eu moins d'effets à court et à long termes s'il y avait eu un État stable en Sierra Leone. Aujourd'hui, l'espoir règne en Sierra Leone, mais la reconstruction du pays reste importante pour qu'il puisse se redresser suite aux séquelles de la guerre. Le gouvernement sierra-léonais doit renforcer ses institutions nationales et mettre l'accent sur la protection de ses ressources naturelles, soit les diamants. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Sierra Leone, Guerre civile, Instabilité régionale, RUF, Diamant

Une vague de révolutions a balayé le monde arabe pendant l'année 2011. Ce mémoire tente d'étudier ces révolutions de point de vue de la théorie des jeux afin d'examiner la rationalité de ces soulèvements. Mais avant cela, le mémoire amène le débat sur la nature de ces révoltes; « Est-ce qu'il s'agit de révolutions ou non? » Aussi, il présente une synthèse des événements du "Printemps Arabe" en plus d'offrir une explication des raisons potentielles. Cette recherche traite la révolution comme un jeu entre trois joueurs; le régime dictateur, l'élite opposante et la masse publique. Pour cela, elle étudie les différents contextes liants ces trois joueurs en expliquant la construction des régimes arabes et les raisons économiques, politiques et sociales des révolutions arabes. L'analyse décrit trois cas différents qui se distinguent les uns par rapport aux autres en fonction du moment de la prise de décision de chacun des joueurs mais principalement des deux derniers : c'est-à-dire l'élite et la masse publique. Nous appelons le premier cas où ces deux derniers prennent une décision simultanément "le jeu simultané". "Le jeu de l'élite" représente le cas où la masse publique attend la décision de l'élite pour prendre une décision. Le troisième cas qui est le cas contraire au deuxième s'appelle "le jeu de la masse publique". L'analyse vise à trouver les conditions qui déterminent la décision de chaque joueur, de les interpréter et ensuite de les appliquer dans le cas des révolutions arabes. Ce travail conclut que les régimes dictateurs peuvent éviter, dans la plupart des cas, des révolutions contre eux en offrant des concessions additionnels aux peuples. Cependant, ces concessions sont limitées par la capacité du régime. Aussi, ce dernier peut parfois éviter une révolution contre lui en exerçant plus de violence envers le peuple. Toutefois, la violence peut apporter des risques non seulement à la société mais aussi sur le régime lui-même. Dans le cas des révolutions arabes, cette recherche peut utiliser le modèle pour interpréter les comportements des régimes et des peuples avant et pendant les révolutions. ______________________________________________________________________________

Mildred Lewis Rutherford, as one of the most prominent members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, has been scantly researched in the past, however her speeches and writing had a profound impact on southern historical consciousness during the New South Period. Her influence, interestingly, was not entirely based in reality. A poststructural analysis of her speeches reveals that she strategically fabricated and excluded information in order to create a specific memory of the past in the minds of southerners. Rutherford had difficulty discerning whether or not the economic benefits of industrialization outweighed the accompanying social consequences. Yet, she used the power of text in an attempt to recreate the Old South social structure based on a racial hierarchy that was bound to be defeated by the rising tide of indu-strialization.

Within the nuclear industry there is an extensive need for evaluation of the safety of the plant. In such evaluations there is one phenomenon requiring some particular treatment, namely common cause failure (CCF). This involves the occurrences of components failing dependently, meaning failures that can overcome the applied redundancy or diversity. The impact of CCF is relatively large, but unfortunately the process of CCF analysis is complicated by the complex nature of CCF events and a very sparse availability of CCF data. Today, there are a number of methods for CCF analysis available with different characteristics, especially concerning their qualitative and quantitative features. The most common working procedure for CCF treatment is to divide the analysis in a qualitative and a quantitative part, but unfortunately the development of tools for the qualitative part has to a certain extent got behindhand. This subject is further explored in a comparative study focused on two totally different approaches for CCF analysis, the impact vector method and the unified partial method. Based on insights from this study an integrated impact vector and ‘Relations of Defences, Root causes and Coupling factors’ (RDRC) methodology is suggested to be further explored for progress towards a methodology incorporating both qualitative and quantitative aspects.