The licentiate thesis explored the relationship between working conditions and wage income, and the relationship between working conditions and sense of coherence in relation to ill health, focusing on cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal pain, and psychological distress among the working population in Sweden. The studies were based on cross-sectional and longitudinal survey data (ULF and LNU), and on the Swedish census (FoB90) linked to the national cause of death registry. The samples included employed men and women residing in Sweden, aged 18-64. The main results show that working conditions contributed to income differences in CVD prevalence as well as CVD mortality irrespective of study design or way of assessing working conditions. Further, sense of coherence moderated, yet not consistently, the impact of working conditions on musculoskeletal pain and psychological distress. The moderating role seemed to vary by work exposure, gender and health outcome. Hence, the results do not support the hypothesis that sense of coherence is a global health-protective factor. The findings stress that future research into working conditions and employees’ health would benefit from including income in the analyses since wages are closely related to working conditions and to people’s position on the labour market. In addition, focusing on individual resources such as sense of coherence increases our undertanding of how individual differences in coping with adverse working conditions may affect health. Since the results also revealed considerable gender differences, suggesting that the factors that determine future work-related health are different for men and women, it is important to study men and women separately.

Sense of place is important because it enhances the user experience in a setting, promotes well maintained public places and encourages public participation in planning. In addition, sense of place has recently been recognized for its significance in ecosystem and resource management. Unfortunately, due to lack of a clear definition and disorganization in the literature, the significance of sense of place has not translated well from theory to practice. This research narrows the gap between theory and practice in place-making by distilling common place-making principles from the literature to develop a set of clear, practical guidelines for place-making. Using Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, these principles (and the techniques that fulfill them) were incorporated into twenty ‘what-if’ visual simulations. Using a multi-sort technique, combined with open-ended interviews, these simulations were used to evoke participant responses to the principles and techniques distilled from the literature. Generally, it was found that sense of place is enhanced with the addition of these principles/techniques, but five unexpected ‘key findings’ were also discovered – there is a hierarchy amongst the principles; there is a hierarchy amongst the techniques; significant techniques are lacking in the literature; the principles/techniques need not be exhausted; and, with familiarity, mystery becomes meaning. Practically, it is demonstrated that the guidelines developed through this research are capable of providing solutions to issues recognized in current Canadian design guidelines. Academically, this research presents an initial exploratory study in bridging the gap between theory and practice in place-making. A number of opportunities are recognized to further test the principles/techniques distilled in this research.

MMORPG game as the a representative product of video game from its birth to the present more than several decades, have been developing at an astonishing speed and MMORPG player groups have expanded. Nevertheless, there are questions being raised of the relatively new and successful field of sense of immersion of MMORPG game design. In the previous studies, the theory of flow had been testified to be the tremendously significant to explore sense of immersion while performing the activities and it had been applied to many different domains. Based on three conditions of that are necessary to achieve the flow state, the paper addresses the predicaments by analyzing the research results in relation to previous design report on the sense of immersion of MMORPG game design. The paper also provides the constrictive thoughts and productive sketches on how to promote the sense of immersion of MMORPG game using the design artifacts in an early design process.

Sense of place is important because it enhances the user experience in a setting, promotes well maintained public places and encourages public participation in planning. In addition, sense of place has recently been recognized for its significance in ecosystem and resource management. Unfortunately, due to lack of a clear definition and disorganization in the literature, the significance of sense of place has not translated well from theory to practice. This research narrows the gap between theory and practice in place-making by distilling common place-making principles from the literature to develop a set of clear, practical guidelines for place-making. Using Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, these principles (and the techniques that fulfill them) were incorporated into twenty ‘what-if’ visual simulations. Using a multi-sort technique, combined with open-ended interviews, these simulations were used to evoke participant responses to the principles and techniques distilled from the literature. Generally, it was found that sense of place is enhanced with the addition of these principles/techniques, but five unexpected ‘key findings’ were also discovered – there is a hierarchy amongst the principles; there is a hierarchy amongst the techniques; significant techniques are lacking in the literature; the principles/techniques need not be exhausted; and, with familiarity, mystery becomes meaning. Practically, it is demonstrated that the guidelines developed through this research are capable of providing solutions to issues recognized in current Canadian design guidelines. Academically, this research presents an initial exploratory study in bridging the gap between theory and practice in place-making. A number of opportunities are recognized to further test the principles/techniques distilled in this research.

The aim of the study was to investigate the sense of coherence among students in Zambia. Sense of coherence was assessed with the questionnaire SOC-29. The respondents were 102 students, aged 15 to 20 years, in three schools in Livingstone. A secondary aim was to examine the relationship between sense of coherence, gender and age. The mean score on SOC-29 was 131 for the Zambian students, which is lower than SOC measured for Swedish adolescents (m=138,5) as well as the Swedish population (m=146). There were no significant correlations between sense of coherence and gender, nor between sense of coherence and age.

This paper discusses how a profit-pursuing economic man turning to a social man with the sense of ¡¥place¡¦. Using the case study of Taiwanese businessmen investing land in Vietnam, this thesis argues that such an imagined ¡¥mobile capital¡¦ might be turning to the capital embedded in the local place. Based on grounded theory, the author interviewed 20 persons in Vietnam to understand their life trajectories, and their current situations in Vietnam. The result shows that Taiwanese businesspeople in different industries, which locate their production in different locations, have different senses of place attachment. Language ability and the intimate life with local people will affect their attachment to the local place.

none

The first topic of this thesis is a cell-based design solution of 4¡Ñ8 scanning decoder using RC5 protocol for DECT handsets. It is a keypad scanner ASIC without any embedded microprocessor nor internal ROMs. The keypad scanner uses RC5 transfer protocol which is compatible with remote control and wireless handsets. The keypad scanner built in the handsets must meet the requirement of low power consumption and small die size to avoid shortening the battery lift and increasing chip cost. The proposed ASIC design possesses both of the required advantages. The second topic is a high-performance SRAM using current sense amplifier. Current sensing in SRAMs is very promising method to achieve high speed operations in low-voltage applications. This topic present a current sense amplifier circuit as well as its simulation results.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the feeling of belonging that students may or may not have and the relationship of student sense of belonging to the overall academic achievement of a school. Students were surveyed on their sense of belonging in selected middle schools. The students scored themselves on the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale, which revealed an overall mean score of belonging. Students from high-performing schools were compared to students from low-performing schools in regard to their sense of belonging. Additionally, teachers were asked to rate their perception of the students’ sense of belonging. The teachers’ scores were compared to the students’ scores in both high- and low-performing schools. Lastly, teachers were asked to provide qualitative information about the schools’ role in creating a sense of belonging. An extensive review of the literature regarding sense of belonging reveals support of the importance of sense of belonging in student achievement. There is also extensive evidence regarding variation of sense of belonging among minority groups and the important role of teachers in creating a sense of belonging for students. This study found that there is no significant difference in students’ reported sense of belonging between high-performing schools and low-performing schools on the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale. There is a significant difference between the teachers’ perception of the students’ sense of belonging and the students’ reported sense of belonging on the Psychological Sense of School Membership scales. Teachers reported important roles in creating an environment of belonging. The qualitative data provided by teachers support evidence from the literature review indicative of schools with sense of belonging. High-performing schools do not report much information regarding discipline and routine as being important parts of creating belonging. However, low performing schools often report these as important to creating a sense of belonging for students. Implications of the research include: Teachers may not have an accurate understanding of students’ sense of belonging and how to create a sense of belonging in schools. Further study should try to gain better understanding of the relationship between sense of belonging and minority status.

In recent years, research has shown that the issue of security is an essential indicator for public well-being. Along with the advance of science and technology, the application of monitor, which includes the field of crime investigation and prevention, has become more and more importance. Furthermore, the location of monitor is also involved with personal privacy. As a result, it is necessary to prove which one is better for explanation of sense of happiness. Based on the Maslow theory of needs, this study explores the relationship between Kaohsiung resident needs and the installation of monitor in terms of quantitative research methods. For the variable of installation demand, it adopts the way of self-questionnaire mining dimensions including security, social, respect, self-actualization and cognitive needs. After validity analysis, the positive cognitive demand had three factors along with seven independent variables, the reliability above 0.7. Dependent variable of the installation of monitor was adapted from Chinese version of Hu Yan (2000). In this study, the version of SPSS 12.0 software was used for statistical analysis along with Likert scale scores. The higher score of scale is, the more sense of happiness does. After practical analysis, it was found that the people with installed monitor will have higher degree of feeling and safety, not to mention the sense of happiness. They feel that they live in the protection of life and have a sense of accomplishment more than the other events of middle level. In terms of age, work, marriage, positive cognitive and living environment, there is significant difference among them. However, there is no significant difference between monitor alliance and happiness. The study assumed that there are some significant positive correlations among the aspects of safety, community, respect and self-actualization, and it shows that it is necessary to install the street monitor. However, for the aspects of privacy violation as well as stalk information leakage, it was significantly lower degree of positive correlation, indicating the doubtful attitude of public for installation monitor. Therefore, the study infers there might be some impact on personal privacy, so it is necessary to set up stricter management practices on the use of information to alleviate people¡¦s concerns and to prevent people from human rights with law. Within this study, it explains the overall sense of happiness for 72.1%. Maslow's theory is closely linked with the public safety protection measures in life, and it is a practical application. As a result, it proposed the follow-up researchers to delve into the effect of monitor, especially on crime prevention.