This Master's thesis deals with female characters of the socially critical novel Frau Jenny Treibel by Theodor Fontane, in order to find out whether the heroines are satisfied in their social roles or whether they try to challenge the social norms, and what role their social background and education play in this matter. Furthermore, we ask what life goals these women pursue and how successful they are in fulfilling them. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter sketches Fontane's biography with the emphasis on the importance of his numerous friendships with women and his ambivalent relationship to female emancipation. Based on literature research, the second chapter introduces poetic realism focusing on Fontane's specific position in it - as a critical realist with elements of modernity. The third, longest chapter, contains the analysis and interpretation of the individual female characters of the novel. We have found, that regardless their social class and education, the heroines live under social conventions, according to which their main goal is an advantageous marriage, functioning at the same time as the measure of their success. The two protagonists, the representative of the intellectual bourgeoisie Corinna, and the more experienced representative of the newly rich...

This research investigates the impact of the interaction between the consumer and mobile service provider on the adoption of advanced mobile commerce services by existing consumers of mobile technology. These factors include: 1) Perceived Relationship Quality (PRQ), which is the consumer’s evaluation of the quality of his/her relationship with the mobile service provider, and 2) Perceived Value of the Adoption Incentive (PVI), which is the consumer’s evaluation of the value of incentives that are offered by the service provider to entice him/her to adopt the mobile service. The influence of these factors on consumer attitudes and intentions towards adopting mobile commerce services is studied and compared with three other well-known adoption factors including perceived usefulness, ease of use and the subjective norm. / This study was undertaken in three parts. Firstly, a conceptual study was conducted to investigate and analyse the existing literature on consumer adoption of mobile commerce services. This phase started with a general review of the existing studies using a novel model: the Entities-Interactions Framework, EIF. The EIF explains adoption behaviour in terms of interactions between the consumer and the other entities including the mobile service, the service provider and the social system. This framework was used to analyse the extent to which important adoption factors have been covered by past research and therefore identify the research questions. The conceptual study resulted in the development of a research model and relevant hypotheses. / Secondly, a large-scale questionnaire survey was conducted to test the research model and the proposed hypotheses. This part of the research helped give a broad picture of the influence of consumer-service provider factors on consumer adoption of mobile commerce services. Thirdly, face-to-face interviews with mobile phones users were conducted in order to validate the survey results and provide an understanding of the mechanisms that control the impact of the investigated factors. The research found that PRQ and PVI have an important influence on the attitude and intention of existing mobile phone users towards accepting and using advanced mobile commerce services. Furthermore, the research found that these newly introduced factors are more influential on consumer adoption perceptions than other well-established factors. / The study enriches our understanding of technology adoption by individuals because it explains why an existing user of a technology, such as mobile technology, will or will not adopt advanced versions of that technology. The findings affirm that in the context of communication technologies, which are interactive by nature, understanding the interaction between consumers and service providers is a key to understanding the progressive adoption by consumers of advanced forms of these technologies. The thesis provides practitioners (particularly mobile service providers) with a better understanding of the impact and implication of their interaction with consumers on consumers’ acceptance and use of mobile services. The study emphasises the importance of incorporating this understanding throughout the mobile service provision process, starting from the conceptualisation of the service to the actual provision of the service to the market. The study also offers a novel comprehension of how to view each mobile service offer as a consequence of the previous offer and a precedent of the next in order to enhance consumer adoption of mobile service in the short and long runs.

<p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur översättarna bakom de två bibelöversättningarna valt att framställa de gammaltestamentliga kvinnorna i rubrikerna. Den övergripande frågeställning som jag kommer att besvara i den här uppsatsen är:</p><ul><li>På vilket sätt skiljer sig rubrikerna mellan de två översättningarna åt i hur kvinnor betonas?</li></ul><p>Min följdfråga är:</p><ul><li>Kan en eventuell förändring härledas från de direktiv som låg till grund för översättningsarbetet?</li></ul><p>Utifrån den övergripande frågeställning kommer jag att undersöka de rubriker som kvinnor nämns i med utgångspunkt i det som en del av feministteologerna strävar efter, nämligen att synliggöra kvinnan. Min hypotes är att kvinnan har synliggjorts mer i och med den nya bibelöversättningen.</p>

<p>The purpose of this paper is to see how differences are handled in preschools, with a focus on children with homo- or bisexual parents. By doing this we wanted to see how the conditions for a child with homo- or bisexual parents looks like, in order to have their family conditions mirrored, confirmed and visualised in the preschool.</p><p>The foundation for the discussion is a questionaire which has been answered by 229 preschool workers from 24 different preschools in the City of Stockholm. The result of the questionaire has been handled in a statistics program. Our analysis is based on the statistical numbers and the written replies to the open questions in the questionaire.</p><p>As a theoretical starting point we have used Iris Marion Young’s ideas about how our society is coloured by an ideal of similarity that defines liberation as the transcendence of group difference, where the dominant group cannot see how their perspective is just one of several perspectives. Furthermore, we use Tiina Rosenberg’s thoughts on the two main principles of heteronormativity and her focus on the sexed and sexual norms from which we organize our assumptions about our sex, sexuality and family. We also use Ann Runfors’ experiences of how differences are turned in to similarities when immigrant background is dealt with in the Swedish school.</p><p>Our results show that the nuclear family is still the norm when speaking about family in preschools and that the knowledge concerning children with homo- and bisexual parents is slight. Many of the informants believe that differences are best dealt with by treatin all children equally. A great number of the informants assume that giving attention to the rainbow children contributes to inequality and a negative distinction of the child as different. There are also informants that request more knowledge on the subject to be able to treat children and parents in an inclusive way.</p><p>We believe that differences have a social significance, which is why we are convinced that preschools ought to become aware of how the heterosexual norm is being reproduced. By reflecting on society’s norms and values, the preschools would be able to help the rainbow child to be proud of its family and in this way counteract heterosexism.</p> / <p>Syftet med detta utredningsarbete är att se hur olikheter hanteras på förskolan, med fokus på barn med homo- eller bisexuella föräldrar. Genom detta ville vi se hur förutsättningarna för ett barn med homo- eller bisexuella föräldrar ser ut för att få sin familjesituation speglad, bekräftad och synliggjord på förskolan.</p><p>Underlaget för diskussionen är en enkät som besvarats av 229 personer som arbetar på 24 olika förskolor inom Stockholm stad. Resultaten från enkäten har hanterats i statistikprogram. Vi baserar vår analys på de statistiska uppgifterna och de skrivna kommentarerna till de öppna frågorna i enkäten.</p><p>Som en av våra teoretiska utgångspunkter har vi använt oss av Iris Marion Youngs idéer om hur vårt samhälle är färgat av ett likhetsideal, där den priviligerade gruppen inte kan se att deras föreställningar om hur saker och ting är bara är ett av flera perspektiv. En annan utgångspunkt är Tiina Rosenbergs tankar om heteronormativitetens två bärande principer och det fokus hon lägger på de könade och sexuella normerna utifrån vilka vi organiserar våra föreställningar om kön, sexualitet och familjebildning. Vi använder oss också av Ann Runfors erfarenheter av hur olikhet görs till likheter när invandrarskap hanteras i den svenska skolan.</p><p>Våra resultat visar att kärnfamiljen fortfarande är norm då förskolorna talar om familj och att kunskapen om barn med homo- och bisexuella föräldrar inte är stor. Många informanter menar att olikhet bäst hanteras genom likabehandling av alla barn. Informanterna uppfattar i stor utsträckning att uppmärksamhet på regnbågsbarnen bidrar till ojämlikhet och ett negativt särskiljande av barnet som annorlunda. Det finns även informanter i materialet som efterfrågar mer kunskap för att kunna bemöta barn och föräldrar på ett inkluderande sätt.</p><p>Vi menar att olikheter har social betydelse. Det är därför förskolan bör, genom reflektion över hur samhällets normer och värderingar ser ut, bli medvetna om hur heteronormen reproduceras på förskolan för att kunna hjälpa regnbågsbarnet att känna stolthet över sin familj och att för att på så sätt motverka heterosexism.</p>

<p>The main result in this thesis is the generalisation of Bergman's diamond lemma for ring theory to power series rings. This generalisation makes it possible to treat problems in which there arise infinite descending chains. Several results in the literature are shown to be special cases of this diamond lemma and examples are given of interesting problems which could not previously be treated. One of these examples provides a general construction of a normed skew field in which a custom commutation relation holds.</p><p>There is also a general result on the structure of totally ordered semigroups, demonstrating that all semigroups with an archimedean element has a (up to a scaling factor) unique order-preserving homomorphism to the real numbers. This helps analyse the concept of filtered structure. It is shown that whereas filtered structures can be used to induce pretty much any zero-dimensional linear topology, a real-valued norm suffices for the definition of those topologies that have a reasonable relation to the multiplication operation.</p><p>The thesis also contains elementary results on degree (as of polynomials) functions, norms on algebras (in particular ultranorms), (Birkhoff) orthogonality in modules, and construction of semigroup partial orders from ditto quasiorders.</p>

Optimization is a scientific discipline that lies at the boundary between pure and applied mathematics. Indeed, while on the one hand some of its developments involve rather theoretical concepts, its most successful algorithms are on the other hand heavily used by numerous companies to solve scheduling and design problems on a daily basis. Our research started with the study of the conic formulation for convex optimization problems. This approach was already studied in the seventies but has recently gained a lot of interest due to development of a new class of algorithms called interior-point methods. This setting is able to exploit the two most important characteristics of convexity: - a very rich duality theory (existence of a dual problem that is strongly related to the primal problem, with a very symmetric formulation), - the ability to solve these problems efficiently, both from the theoretical (polynomial algorithmic complexity) and practical (implementations allowing the resolution of large-scale problems) point of views. Most of the research in this area involved so-called self-dual cones, where the dual problem has exactly the same structure as the primal: the most famous classes of convex optimization problems (linear optimization, convex quadratic optimization and semidefinite optimization) belong to this category. We brought some contributions in this field: - a survey of interior-point methods for linear optimization, with an emphasis on the fundamental principles that lie behind the design of these algorithms, - a computational study of a method of linear approximation of convex quadratic optimization (more precisely, the second-order cone that can be used in the formulation of quadratic problems is replaced by a polyhedral approximation whose accuracy that can be guaranteed a priori), - an application of semidefinite optimization to classification, whose principle consists in separating different classes of patterns using ellipsoids defined in the feature space (this approach was successfully applied to the prediction of student grades). However, our research focussed on a much less studied category of convex problems which does not rely on self-dual cones, i.e. structured problems whose dual is formulated very differently from the primal. We studied in particular - geometric optimization, developed in the late sixties, which possesses numerous application in the field of engineering (entropy optimization, used in information theory, also belongs to this class of problems) - l_p-norm optimization, a generalization of linear and convex quadratic optimization, which allows the formulation of constraints built around expressions of the form |ax+b|^p (where p is a fixed exponent strictly greater than 1). For each of these classes of problems, we introduced a new type of convex cone that made their formulation as standard conic problems possible. This allowed us to derive very simplified proofs of the classical duality results pertaining to these problems, notably weak duality (a mere consequence of convexity) and the absence of a duality gap (strong duality property without any constraint qualification, which does not hold in the general convex case). We also uncovered a very surprising result that stipulates that geometric optimization can be viewed as a limit case of l_p-norm optimization. Encouraged by the similarities we observed, we developed a general framework that encompasses these two classes of problems and unifies all the previously obtained conic formulations. We also brought our attention to the design of interior-point methods to solve these problems. The theory of polynomial algorithms for convex optimization developed by Nesterov and Nemirovsky asserts that the main ingredient for these methods is a computable self-concordant barrier function for the corresponding cones. We were able to define such a barrier function in the case of l_p-norm optimization (whose parameter, which is the main determining factor in the algorithmic complexity of the method, is proportional to the number of variables in the formulation and independent from p) as well as in the case of the general framework mentioned above. Finally, we contributed a survey of the self-concordancy property, improving some useful results about the value of the complexity parameter for certain categories of barrier functions and providing some insight on the reason why the most commonly adopted definition for self-concordant functions is the best possible.

The main result in this thesis is the generalisation of Bergman's diamond lemma for ring theory to power series rings. This generalisation makes it possible to treat problems in which there arise infinite descending chains. Several results in the literature are shown to be special cases of this diamond lemma and examples are given of interesting problems which could not previously be treated. One of these examples provides a general construction of a normed skew field in which a custom commutation relation holds. There is also a general result on the structure of totally ordered semigroups, demonstrating that all semigroups with an archimedean element has a (up to a scaling factor) unique order-preserving homomorphism to the real numbers. This helps analyse the concept of filtered structure. It is shown that whereas filtered structures can be used to induce pretty much any zero-dimensional linear topology, a real-valued norm suffices for the definition of those topologies that have a reasonable relation to the multiplication operation. The thesis also contains elementary results on degree (as of polynomials) functions, norms on algebras (in particular ultranorms), (Birkhoff) orthogonality in modules, and construction of semigroup partial orders from ditto quasiorders.

In general, PN code synchronization consists of two steps: PN code acquisition (coarse alignment) and PN code tracking (fine alignment), to estimate the delay offset between received and locally generated codes. Recently, the schemes with a joint adaptive process of PN code acquisition and the weight coefficients of smart antenna have been proposed for improving the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and simultaneously achieving better mean-acquisition-time (MAT) performance in direct-sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems. In which, the setting of the threshold plays an important role on the MAT performance. Often, the received SINR is varying, using the fixed threshold acquisition algorithms may result in undesirable performance. To improve the above problem, in this thesis, a new adaptive threshold scheme is devised in a joint adaptive code acquisition and beam-forming DS-CDMA receiver for code acquisition under a fading multipath and additive white Gaussian-noise (AWGN) channels. The basic idea of this new adaptive threshold scheme is to estimate the averaged output power of smart antenna to scale a reference threshold for each observation interval, such that it can approximately achieve a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) criteria. The system probabilities of the proposed scheme are derived for evaluating MAT under a slowly fading two-paths channels. Numerical analyses and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed adaptive threshold scheme does achieve better performance, in terms of the output SINR, the detection probability and the MAT, compared to a fixed threshold method.

Denna avhandling, som i huvudsak är resultatet av ett projekt finansierat av Skolöverstyrelsen, består av fem delstudier (I-V) utförda under åren 1977-1991 samt en sammanfattande analysdel (VI). Avhandlingens syfte är att studera det unika svenska relativa betygssystemet, som infördes på försök i folkskolan i början av 1940-talet för att senare permanentas och även införas i enhets- och grundskolan samt slutligen även i gymnasiet. Det relativa betygssystemet beskrivs enligt följande indelning: framväxt och avveckling (V), funktioner (I), effekter och sidoeffekter (III) samt användning och behov (II och IV). I de empiriska studierna har elever, lärare, arbetsgivare och arbetstagare fått ge sina synpunkter på de relativa betygen. I delstudie V analyseras utvecklingen av det relativa betygssystemet med hjälp av offentliga utredningar, remissvar från elev-, lärar-, aibetsgivar- och arbetstagarorganisationer samt också via riksdagstryck.De relativa betygen beskrivs som starkt knutna till urvalet till högre studier och som ett försök att tillskapa ett urvalsinstrument med möjlighet till jämförbarhet och större rättvisa. Betygen har visat sig spela liten roll vid urvalet till olika arbeten. Betygen fyller en "körkortsfunktion" genom att ange inriktning och linje. I övrigt speglar betygen i huvudsak förmåga att tillgodogöra sig teoretiskt stoff. Vid urvalet till olika arbeten beskrivs en utveckling från formella till informella meriter i form av vissa personlighetsegenskaper, t ex samarbetsförmåga, flexibilitet och utåtriktad läggning. Arbetslivserfarenhet, referenser och personlighetsegenskaper betyder mer vid anställningar än skolbetygen.I avhandlingen anges såväl mättekniska, informationstekniska som socialpsykologiska förklaringar till att det relativa betygssystemet är på väg att avvecklas. Betänkligheter riktas mot ett eventuellt införande av målrelaterade betyg p g a styrningsriskerna för elever och lärare, samt också mot riskerna för en ökad kontroll och ett ökat beroende av avnämarna. I avhandlingen noteras skillnader mellan praktiska och teoretiska linjer när det gäller synen på betyg. Som tänkbara förklaringar anges användningen och behovet av betyg liksom också närheten och kopplingen till näringslivet. Betygens officiella funktioner som informations-, motivations- och urvalsinstrument har gradvis minskat. Tidigare har frågor om styrning och kontroll kommit i bakgrunden i förhållande till de officiella funktionerna. Om målrelaterade betyg införs och om betygens roll som urvalsinstrument försvinner, torde betygens styrnings- och kontrollfunktioner behöva diskuteras och motiveringar till att över huvud taget ha kvar betyg i skolan lyftas fram. / This dissertation, which is mainly the result of a project financed by the National Board of Education, consists of five substudies (I-V) carried out between 1977 and 1991, and a summary analysis (VI). The aim of the dissertation is to study group-referenced marks which are unique for Sweden. In the 1940s they were introduced on trial into elementary school, where they were later permanent, and they were also introduced into comprehensive school, nine-year compulsory school and finally also into upper secondary school. The description of group-referenced marks is divided into the following substudies: development and phase-out (V), functions (I), effects and side-effects (III), and use and requirements (II and IV). In the empirical studies, students, teachers, employers and employees have been asked to give their opinions of group-referenced marks. Substudy V analyses the development of group-referenced marks through official reports, through reactions to these reports from student, teacher, employers' and employees' organizations, and also through official parliamentary publications.Group-referenced marks are described as closely connected with the selection to higher education and as an attempt to construct an instrument of selection offering possibilities of comparability and greater justice. Marks have proved to be of little consequence for employment. They function as a "driving licence" by indicating direction and course programme. Marks reflect, above all, the ability to assimilate theoretical subject-matter. The selection to various employments manifests a development from formal to informal merits in the form of certain qualities, e. g. the ability to co-operate, flexibility and extrovert behaviour. Work experience, references and personal qualities are more important than marks for employmentThe dissertation indicates measurement technological, information technological and socio-psychological explanations of withdrawing group-referenced marks. The dissertation also expresses apprehensions about the potential introduction of criterion-referenced marks owing to the steering effects for pupils and teachers, as well as about the risks of increasing control and dependence on potential employers. Differences between practical and theoretical course programmes regarding attitudes to marks can also be observed. These differences can perhaps be explained by the use and needs of marks as well as by the nearness and connection to industry and commerce. The importance of the official functions of marks as information, motivation and selection instruments has gradually been reduced. Problems of steering and control used to be subordinate to the official functions. If criterion-referenced marks are introduced and if marks lose their selection function, the steering and control functions of marks should be discussed and the motives for preserving marks in school should be presented. / digitalisering@umu

<p>This research work investigates and reports on the contribution of usability and perceptual frameworks towards understanding and ultimately increasing usage of a sales website and a corporate marketing website for a major insurance company in South Africa. It investigates whether the application of usability principles to the sales web positively influences the usage of the sales web system as a tool by intermediaries, and in so doing help the organisation recoup their investment and lower operational costs. This financial services (traditionally insurance) company, like many organisations, is in the process of migrating key operational systems onto web platforms to take advantage of benefits such as the ubiquity of web access and services orientated architecture among others. The research reviewed key frameworks in the area of technology acceptance or usage namely  Nielsen‟s usability attributes (Nielsen, 2003)  The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), (Davis, 1989)&nbsp /  The Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein &amp / Ajzen, 1975)  The Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985) / and derived a theoretical summative model (the Conceptual Research Model) that combined both usability and perceptual dimensions. The applicability of this summative model was empirically tested using quantitative data relating to system&nbsp / usage and user perception. Empirical evidence was gathered to prove and refine the Conceptual Research Model (CRM), and the data substantiated the inclusion of the constructs in the CRM, as well as the efficacy of the model in a financial services organisation. Through testing of the CRM, this research has also confirmed which specific attributes of usability can be focussed on to bring about positive change in users‟ usage behaviour and adoption of a website or web application.</p>