Students cannot benefit from what they do not experience. Multiple reasons exist for why an intervention may not be delivered as it was designed. In this era of educational accountability and limited dollars to go around, understanding how an intervention is delivered in the classroom is key to understanding program outcomes. In order to assess whether a program has been implemented as intended, an assessment of fidelity is needed. However assessing fidelity is complex given varying conceptual interpretations, which then fosters inconsistent application of methods to measure the construct. Additionally the methods for validating fidelity measures are still unclear. The current study evaluated the reliability and validity of the student Instructional Pedagogical (10 items) and Instructional Student Engagement (15 items) scores for use in assessing teachers' fidelity of implementation on the participant responsiveness component of fidelity. The sample consisted of over 5,000 responses from students and 242 teachers in Mathematics and Science across three school districts and 41 schools to an online fidelity of implementation questionnaire. Given that students were nested within teachers, the data structure was multilevel, which warranted that the psychometric analyses be conducted using a multilevel framework. Instructional Pedagogy is represented by 10 items that measure three factors. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was used to test a two-level model that had three factors at the student-level and three factors at the teacher-level. Instructional Student Engagement is represented by 15 items that measure four factors. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was used to test a two-level model that had four factors at the student-level and four factors at the teacher-level. The psychometric results of the student questionnaire assessing the student engagement components of fidelity were mixed. Support for the factorial validity of the multilevel student models was mixed, with model fit indicating that some of the measured variables did not load strongly on their respective factors and some of the factors lacked discriminant validity. Lastly, the correlations between students' and teachers' scores for both the observed and latent variables (ranging from -.15 to .72 in math; -.07 to .41 in science) displayed limited convergent validity.

<p>Natural stress and disturbances are important factors affecting the structure and function of ecosystems. However the magnitude of stress has escalated due to anthropogenic activities. Environmental monitoring and toxicity assessments try to protect ecosystems from unwanted human alterations. The aim of this Doctoral thesis was to increase the understanding of the complex effects that environmental stress has on individuals and invertebrate populations. The low saline environment in the Baltic Sea is perceived as stressful for most organisms living there. In Paper I, it was found that Baltic blue mussels living in the less saline northern Baltic Proper (~5 psu) had lower basal metabolism and were more susceptible to toxic exposure than the mussels in the south (~7 psu). There was no genetic differentiation between the mussels from the northern and southern areas while there were genetic differences between mussels from sites within the respective areas (Paper III), indicating that there is not a simple relationship between the health of the mussels and genetic diversity in the microsatellite loci studied. In Paper IV it was found that the heat tolerance of the intertidal dogwhelk <i>Nucella lapillus</i> is oxygen dependent. Increased oxygen levels resulted in higher survival rate. Protein expression profiles also became more similar to those of the controls, compared to the whelks exposed to high temperature and normal oxygen levels. In Paper V and VI it was found that exposure to a single toxicant for more than one generation decreased the genetic diversity in exposed copepod populations even though abundances remained unaltered. In Paper VI, exposure to naturally contaminated sediments, which contained of a mixture of toxicants, did not decrease genetic diversity. However the genetic divergence (<i>F</i><i>ST</i>) within the treatments was very high, probably due to small effective population sizes in the replicates. Likewise in Paper III, the very low blue mussel abundance in the north together with the stressful environment suggests a small effective population in the northern Baltic Proper. In conclusion, my studies show that, measuring effects on several levels, including both functional and structural endpoints will both increase the sensitivity of the tests and increase their ecological relevance. </p>

<p>In the light of the debate on the future of the European Union, a debate on new and better governance has started. One of the subjects of this debate is the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). It was initiated at the Lisbon European Council in 2000 as one of the ways to reach the strategic goals set for the EU at the same summit. Policy coordination was however applied in European policy- making before the Lisbon European Council. In the area of employment these activities had been operating for some years, and the OMC was created with the European Employment Strategy (EES) as a model. Now the OMC is also operating in the area of social inclusion policy, and a number of other policy areas. As its use is being extended, scholars as well as practitioners are studying it to determine its role and functions in EU governance. </p><p>This thesis aims at examining the open method of coordination, in an effort to position it in the European governance structure and discuss if it can be a sign of an emerging new mode of European governance. </p><p>Using a comparative approach, this thesis combines three methodologies; documentation analysis, interviews and case-studies. The analytical framework consists of existing modes of governance, as defined by Helen Wallace (2000). These are complemented with one more mode of governance. A discussion on governance in general and European governance in particular is also part of the analytical framework. </p><p>The OMC is studied by its definition and is further discussed from the view of the different European institutions. Finally a case study of its application in employment policy and social inclusion policy is presented. These findings are then set in relation to the governance modes in the analytical framework, in order to define and explain the OMC. A discussion of the notions of democracy and legitimacy is also held. The conclusions hold that the OMC is an interesting mix of multi-level governance, intensive transgovernmentalism and policy coordination and benchmarking. It also has interesting features of the innovative mode of network governance. This concludes that the OMC does not only build on innovative governance, but is an interesting balance between multi-level and intergovernmental governance. It is also based on notions of legitimacy rather than democracy. </p><p>Based on the findings in this thesis, the OMC should be seen as a sign of a new way of thinking about European governance. Its role should however not be exaggerated as most actors are very clear on it not being an alternative to ordinary Community action, and it should be seen as a complement rather than a substitute. The fact that the Convention on the future of Europe did not include the OMC into the draft constitutional treaty shows a somewhat ambivalent position towards it. It is concluded that the specific mix of governance features in the OMC is best served outside the treaty at this point.</p>

We live in the Anthropocene – an age where humans dominate natural systems – and there is ample evidence that our current practices degrade the capacity of natural systems to provide us with natural resources. How we, as humans, organize and learn, in communities and among state and other societal actors, constitute a decisive factor for both local management of natural resources and the functioning of the planet Earth. In other words, the outcome of learning has become a matter of governance across multiple levels. This thesis studies the role of social learning in governance of natural resources, asking the following three overarching questions: i) What are the institutional barriers limiting better environmental governance at different scales? ii) Is there a causal connection between social learning and better environmental governance? iii) What are the normative challenges with better environmental governance or social-ecological resilience being linked to the adaptive capacity of actors to learn socially? The primary method is semi-structured in-depth interviews. Papers provide results on institutional barriers such as competency traps and show how customs and current practices and collaborations limit better environmental governance. It is found that social learning might, and might not, lead to better environmental governance, and the causal connection between social learning and better environmental governance is found to be rather weak, with both variables depending on other factors. Enabling policy, a mandate to make broad assessments, or an engaged leader facilitating social learning, are examples of factors that explain the existence of both social learning and outcomes in terms of better environmental governance. It is concluded that since conditions for, and facilitation of, social learning are so important, research should focus more on what initiates social learning and how social learning can be mainstreamed across multiple levels of governance / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Submitted: Paper 4: Submitted; Paper 5: Submitted.

In the light of the debate on the future of the European Union, a debate on new and better governance has started. One of the subjects of this debate is the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). It was initiated at the Lisbon European Council in 2000 as one of the ways to reach the strategic goals set for the EU at the same summit. Policy coordination was however applied in European policy- making before the Lisbon European Council. In the area of employment these activities had been operating for some years, and the OMC was created with the European Employment Strategy (EES) as a model. Now the OMC is also operating in the area of social inclusion policy, and a number of other policy areas. As its use is being extended, scholars as well as practitioners are studying it to determine its role and functions in EU governance. This thesis aims at examining the open method of coordination, in an effort to position it in the European governance structure and discuss if it can be a sign of an emerging new mode of European governance. Using a comparative approach, this thesis combines three methodologies; documentation analysis, interviews and case-studies. The analytical framework consists of existing modes of governance, as defined by Helen Wallace (2000). These are complemented with one more mode of governance. A discussion on governance in general and European governance in particular is also part of the analytical framework. The OMC is studied by its definition and is further discussed from the view of the different European institutions. Finally a case study of its application in employment policy and social inclusion policy is presented. These findings are then set in relation to the governance modes in the analytical framework, in order to define and explain the OMC. A discussion of the notions of democracy and legitimacy is also held. The conclusions hold that the OMC is an interesting mix of multi-level governance, intensive transgovernmentalism and policy coordination and benchmarking. It also has interesting features of the innovative mode of network governance. This concludes that the OMC does not only build on innovative governance, but is an interesting balance between multi-level and intergovernmental governance. It is also based on notions of legitimacy rather than democracy. Based on the findings in this thesis, the OMC should be seen as a sign of a new way of thinking about European governance. Its role should however not be exaggerated as most actors are very clear on it not being an alternative to ordinary Community action, and it should be seen as a complement rather than a substitute. The fact that the Convention on the future of Europe did not include the OMC into the draft constitutional treaty shows a somewhat ambivalent position towards it. It is concluded that the specific mix of governance features in the OMC is best served outside the treaty at this point.

Natural stress and disturbances are important factors affecting the structure and function of ecosystems. However the magnitude of stress has escalated due to anthropogenic activities. Environmental monitoring and toxicity assessments try to protect ecosystems from unwanted human alterations. The aim of this Doctoral thesis was to increase the understanding of the complex effects that environmental stress has on individuals and invertebrate populations. The low saline environment in the Baltic Sea is perceived as stressful for most organisms living there. In Paper I, it was found that Baltic blue mussels living in the less saline northern Baltic Proper (~5 psu) had lower basal metabolism and were more susceptible to toxic exposure than the mussels in the south (~7 psu). There was no genetic differentiation between the mussels from the northern and southern areas while there were genetic differences between mussels from sites within the respective areas (Paper III), indicating that there is not a simple relationship between the health of the mussels and genetic diversity in the microsatellite loci studied. In Paper IV it was found that the heat tolerance of the intertidal dogwhelk Nucella lapillus is oxygen dependent. Increased oxygen levels resulted in higher survival rate. Protein expression profiles also became more similar to those of the controls, compared to the whelks exposed to high temperature and normal oxygen levels. In Paper V and VI it was found that exposure to a single toxicant for more than one generation decreased the genetic diversity in exposed copepod populations even though abundances remained unaltered. In Paper VI, exposure to naturally contaminated sediments, which contained of a mixture of toxicants, did not decrease genetic diversity. However the genetic divergence (FST) within the treatments was very high, probably due to small effective population sizes in the replicates. Likewise in Paper III, the very low blue mussel abundance in the north together with the stressful environment suggests a small effective population in the northern Baltic Proper. In conclusion, my studies show that, measuring effects on several levels, including both functional and structural endpoints will both increase the sensitivity of the tests and increase their ecological relevance.

Protected areas have so far been the primary means to conserve biodiversity, an increasingly important environmental issue, but proposals to establish protected areas are often met by local resistance due to fears that user rights will be severely restrained. Nature conservation traditionally aims to preserve an ideal state of nature, in which interference by people is minimized through a number of regulations, and where central authorities are in charge. Increasingly, however, conservation policy emphasizes participation. Protected area designations are about institutional change where customary and legal rights to use and manage certain resources are renegotiated. Protected areas can be considered as multi-use and multi-level commons that may benefit from co-management where the state cooperates with user groups, municipalities, research institutions and others. This thesis analyzes the establishment phase of the co-management of multi-level, multi-use commons in order to characterize design principles common to the emergence of co-management processes which improve institutional robustness. The thesis is based on a quantitative survey study and a small-n comparative case study. Paper I compares national, regional and local public opinions about protected areas through a multi-level survey. Papers II to IV each presents a case study of a designation process within the Swedish mountain region. The qualitative case studies are based on the structured, focused comparison method and employ within-case analysis and process-tracing. The material examined consisted of written documenta­tion and 41 semi-structured interviews. The two studies contribute to commons theory; the focus on the establishment phase provides opportunities to acquire abundant information about how contextual and process factors influence the functioning of a co-management arrangement. Paper I suggests that national public opinion is an important contextual variable for natural resources of national interest, and shows that 65% of the Swedish population support local or co-management of protected areas. Papers II to IV reveal that the rigidity of the existing institutional framework is another important contextual variable that influences the degree of learning taking place. Further, the comparative analysis proposes that certain characteristics of a process (the co-management process principles) are essential for the realization of co-management arrangements of multi-level and multi-use commons. The principles are representation, reason(ableness), powers, accountability and learning.

While popular management literature discusses ‘exit’ as a successful outcome of entrepreneurship, empirical research have frequently considered exit as a negative outcome. This dissertation suggests that exit may be the outcome of both failing and successful venturing. Using advanced research designs and high-quality data that follow over 7,000 individual entrepreneurs and the evolution of their firms for 14 years, I show that while the resources and skills of entrepreneurs affect their possibilities to stay in business, exit is to a considerable extent a voluntary decision that entrepreneurs take if the performance of their venture is less than what they aspired to. The empirical evidence presented in the dissertation indicates that the high failure rates among new firms reported in both the academic and popular press may be, at least partially, misinterpreted positive exit decisions rather than failures. The dissertation contains five empirical studies that provide theoretical and empirical contributions to the research fields of entrepreneurship and organization studies. Taken together, the dissertation represents a comprehensive picture of entrepreneurial exit that highlights the importance of entrepreneur(s)’ skills and experiences, as well as contextual factors such as industry structure, geography, and social interaction among similar entrepreneurs. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009, Härtill 5 appendix</p>

This study starts out with the hypothesis that the integration process in Europe is connected to cross-border régionalisation, a process which supports the institutionalization of subnational cross-border cooperation - region-building. Cross-border régionalisation is characterized by the decentralisation of vertical links and enhanced opportunities for horizontal links across state borders. In addition, political integration is expected to have some impact on the cross-border institutional forms that emerge at the subnational level. Three different approaches are utilized in order to establish the empirical connection between political integration and region-building. These are: an analysis of the factors which determine the general pattern of cross-border cooperation in Europe, an analysis of the policy network related to the regional and structural policies of the European Union (EU), and case studies of cooperation in the heartland of Europe, the Regio Basiliensis along the external border of the EU, and the EUREGIO along one of the internal borders. Two institutional factors are found to have a significant impact on the number of subnational cross-border cooperations, EU-membership and centrality. Federal constitution was shown not to be significant. It is suggested that the interaction between actors at different politico- administrative levels creates network relations, which typically bring both private and public actors together. More precisely, region-building is described as the outcome of the interaction which takes place between actors. A closer examination of the emerging policy network shows that community initiatives, the Interreg-programme in particular, improve the prospects for multi­level interaction. The EU plays a crucial role in providing the incentives for cooperation by increasing resource dependency and by establishing direct ties between the European Commission and a large number of subnational actors through partnerships. It appears as if the Commission wishes to demonstrate its capacity to deal with problems relevant to individual citizens. By, in part, bypassing central governments, it seems to increase its own importance vis- à-vis member states. The modus vivendi of cross-border region-building and régionalisation is the degree to which institutional actors at different levels share the same objectives. As shown by the case studies, there is a common interest in cross-border cooperation up to the point were public statues are introduced. Interests seem to coincide as long as the structures and contents of cross-border cooperation do not ultimately challenge the authority of state institutions. Therefore, it is not surprising that it seems impossible to give cross-border regions any rights under international law. Functional cooperation, rather than regionalist manifestations of cultural or political unity across borders, constitutes the backbone of region-building. Activities transcending borders are less controversial than those that may contribute to the establishment of new borders. It is concluded that region-building is a process which is embedded in the institutionalization of a multi-level interaction pattern. More favourable multilevel relations have been achieved through the transfer of some authority to the supranational level. This is the main reason why traditional integration theory fails to explain why there is a connection between political integration and cross-border cooperation. / digitalisering@umu

The organizations of national and provincial parties in Canada are understood to be separated from one another. However, it is not known whether this separation extends to the constituency-level organizations of those parties. In order to provide a better understanding of how national and provincial parties are linked at the local level (if at all), this thesis describes and accounts for the local organizations of the national Liberal Party and the provincial Liberal parties in sixteen national constituencies selected from the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick. Information from interviews with local party activists and participant observation in the ridings is used to develop a continuum of constituency-level party organizations. Descriptions of the activist bases, constituency associations, and local campaigns in each riding allow for each local organization to be placed along this continuum between integrated local organizations, which share important linkages between the national and provincial levels, and differentiated local organizations, where no such linkages exist. The placement of local organizations along this continuum is accounted for by (1) similarities or differences between the national and provincial party systems in the three provinces studied; (2) the actions of incumbent members of the national Parliament and provincial legislatures; and (3) characteristics of the constituencies. The patterns identified lead to a classification of four types of local organizations – One Political World, Interconnected Political Worlds, Distinctive Political Worlds, and Two Political Worlds – that illuminate the different forms of linkages between national and provincial parties that exist at the constituency level. This examination of the local organizations of the Liberal Party calls into question the academic consensus on the separation of national and provincial parties in Canada. Instead, the Liberal Party is characterized as an unevenly integrated party, where the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary parties are separated from provincial counterparts, but where the national and provincial parties on the ground are oftentimes integrated.