This thesis proposes and estimates a model of university scientists interactions with the private sector; in this model students are conceptualized as an important enabler of such interactions. The results of the study show that university scientists student-related behaviors such as grant support of students and research collaboration with students, and student-related attitudes such as mentoring orientation positively affect the probability that scientists will enter interactions with industry as well as the intensity of such interactions. Behaviors such as teaching and advising of students are not related to interactions with industry. This study is motivated by the increased emphasis on closer relationships between universities and industry as a means to facilitate the commercial application of university research. Today, numerous policies and programs attempt to achieve such goals. As a result, university scientists are called on to perform many tasks which on the surface seem misaligned. There is substantial study of conflict between the teaching and research missions of universities, and a growing body of study on conflict related to university based commercial and technology transfer related activities. Fewer, there are studies suggesting that these activities are not so misaligned after all. This study falls into the latter category as it posits a complementary relationship between university scientists student related activities and their work related interactions with industry, research and otherwise. Speculations regarding the importance of students in university industry relations and indirect evidence are scattered through the relevant literature, but little or no systematic empirical tests of their importance exist. This study uses data from a national survey of university researchers to discern the centrality of students to university-industry interactions. Theoretically, students are conceptualized as a dimension of university scientists respective research capacities that enable cross-sectoral processes of accumulative advantage and thereby help to enable their interactions with industry. As a component of scientists scientific and technical human capital, students help university scientists to identify and act upon on research opportunities originating in the private sector. Moreover, students increase the appeal of university scientists to industry agents seeking research partners in academe. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.

The characteristics of fine aggregates, such as shape, angularity, and surface texture, have been shown to influence the performance of concrete and asphalt mixtures and to play an important role in obtaining valuable properties of early age concrete such as workability, and compatibility. However, the measurement of fine aggregate characteristics is not easy. In the present study, 26 fine aggregates, covering a wide spectrum of mineralogy, were examined using direct and indirect test methods in order to evaluate the shape, angularity, and surface texture, as well as to analyze the gradation. The direct test methods, such as AIMS and Camsizer, which provide a digital image of the aggregates proved to be the best. However, the cost of such systems can limit the use of digital imagining systems in practice. The indirect test methods which provide an estimate of aggregate surface characteristics, such as uncompacted void test, mortar flow test, compressive strength test, and flakiness test gave variable results. The uncompacted void test (Method A) was shown to be the most accurate indirect test method. The Camsizer and the sieve analysis test produced identical gradation analysis results when an adequate sample was used. General correlations were developed between the direct and indirect test methods. The non-approved fine aggregates on the TxDOT’s list were analyzed and compared to those of the approved fine aggregates to see whether they could be successfully used. It was found that both LS-5 and LS-8 had good results—even better than the results of some of the approved fine aggregates. Thus, they could be successfully used. / text

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This examination describes the perceptions of faculty, student affairs professionals and students in regard to what students should learn as a result of college and what means are important for collegiate student learning. Some similarities and significant differences are found between groups as well as within groups in relation to what students should learn and how they learn. All three groups were found to place importance on the acquisition of critical thinking and communication skills as an outcome of college attendance. Faculty were found to place more-importance on in class skills and competencies when compared to student affairs professionals or students. All three groups identify traditional in class means of learning as significantly more important than out of class learning within the college environment. / Department of Secondary, Higher, and Foundations of Education

While the story of teaching makes plenty of room for academic and social learning, the telling often leaves out some of the most important details. In this thesis, I tell the stories of four teachers — how they practice and make sense of the caring relationship in the school and how such relationships lead to moral good in people, schools, communities, and the world. The moral is centered in the ongoing dialogue about what is best in schools and the world — the good, and the relationships in which the stories are set. The method is narrative analysis and the format is a series of free verse poems. The characters tell stories of knowing and being known, meaningful dialogue, modeling, authentic care, struggle and tension, individualized attention, hope, and transformation. The conclusion is a deep imagining of possibilities, implications, and outcomes.

Artical 2 of civil procedure code establishes the main aims of civil litigation:defence of violated subject rights and licit interests, proper applying of law when hearing civil cases and passing judicial decisios,swift restoration of legal peace,interpretation and development of law. The essential goal of master's final thesis is to investigate how the above mentioned aims of procedure are implemented in the judicial practice. The author claims that procedural aim of proper appliance of law in the practice of Lithuanian courts is interpreted as the duty of court to identify material truth.The author as well analyses the influence of the recent reform of civil procedure unto the rapidity of litigation and states that there still exist some negative practice in pastponing the hearing of the case when there are no serious reasons for such procedural decision instesd of passing a default judgement or appying procedural penalties. It is generalished that the new Code of Civil procedure established better premises to materialise the essential aims of the procedure.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how library employees view and work with UX or User Experience. It also examines how they view library users, the library and their own professional roles and how these views are connected with the concepts of documentality, legitimacy and identity. The concept of power is also used. The study was carried out thorough a series of ten semi-structured qualitative interviews with employees at Karolinska Institutet University Library and Linköping University Library and is based on a social constructivist perspective. The results show that UX is viewed as a mindset where one tries to look at the library from the users’ perspectives and adapt the library after their needs. This was seen as a new perspective where the library aims to stand in the users’ shoes. Through the use of methods like interviews, observations and usability tests the informants try to understand their users and their needs. However, there was a strong emphasis on balancing the users’ wishes with the aims and conditions of the library which indicate a strong internal legitimacy. It also shows that UX does not indicate a loss of power in the informants’ minds. The study shows that an emphasis on the users’ perspective can also be linked to the core of librarianship further strengthening the internal legitimacy. The results also show that arguments can be made for the importance of both constitutive and performative documentality in academic libraries today. Among the informants there was a strong emphasis on a communicatively oriented professional identity with its focus om dialogue and cooperation with library users. In conclusion, the study shows that UX can be viewed as a way for academic libraries to cope with the many changes the last decades have brought and continue to be relevant in years to come. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

The problem with which this study was concerned was that of determining which of the "Goals for Public School Education in Texas" were perceived as appropriate by local educators and students in smaller school districts and to determine the degree to which each of these goals was being implemented. This study had a two-fold purpose. The first was to compare the differences between appropriateness and implementation as perceived by senior students, teachers, administrators, and the composite group. A comparison between the three groups regarding both appropriateness and implementation was also made. The second purpose of the study was to determine if sex, ethnic background, and geographic location were factors when comparing perceptions concerning the appropriateness and implementation of the "Goals for Public School Education in Texas." The comparison between students, teachers, and administrators revealed a significant difference between the groups on each, of the eighteen goals regarding appropriateness. With regard to implementation, there was a significant difference between groups on eight of the goals. Differences were generally between students and teachers and students and administrators. The comparison between male and female students revealed that the female students perceived the goals to be more appropriate than did the male students. There were no significant differences between their perceptions regarding implementation. There were significant differences between Anglos, Blacks, and Mexican Americans on ten of the eighteen goals with regard to appropriateness and on three of the eighteen goals regarding implementation. Generally the Anglos perceived the goals to be more appropriate than the other two groups. Geographically there were significant differences between the regions regarding both appropriateness and implementation. Differences varied regarding perceived appropriateness. Central Texas generally perceived implementation higher than the other regions and West Texas generally perceived implementation lower.

This study offers an in-depth exploration of the conditions from which the implementation of a curriculum called the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), later localised into Swaziland General Certificate of Secondary Education (SGCSE), emerged and the constraining and enabling conditions for the implementation of the new I/SGCSE curriculum. It derives its theoretical foundation from Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism and Margaret Archer’s concept of analytical separability. The study therefore offers explanations about the curriculum change and its implementation that are based on how structural, cultural, and agential mechanisms operating at a deeper level of reality (the intransitive layer of reality or the domain of the real) and existing independently of what we see, know or believe of them (the transitive layer of reality or domains of the actual and empirical) interacted to condition the emergence of I/SGCSE and the way it is implemented. I conduct a critical discourse analysis of relevant literature, I/SGCSE documents and interview data in order to identify those mechanisms that were cultural and also those that were structural and agential. Bernstein’s concepts of classification and framing are used to analyse observation data in order to explore the influence of these mechanisms on the teaching practices of the teachers who took part in the study. Analysis of the data suggests that the change from General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (GCE O-level) to I/SGCSE was conditioned by inconsistencies between the cultural and structural mechanisms of the Swazi context. Many of the cultural elements of the Swazi context such as the discourses of good citizens, of competitive advantage, and of quality education draw from global discourses which view relations between people from a postmodernist position and therefore support weakly classified and framed pedagogic practices. In contrast, the discourse of morality and many of the structural elements of the Swazi context, such as the pre2006 education system and the Tinkhundla government system, all view reality from a modernist position, therefore supporting strong relations of power and control. The cultural system therefore exerted more influence in conditioning the change from the strongly classified and framed GCE O-level curriculum to the weakly classified and framed I/SGCSE curriculum. Furthermore, the analysis of interview and observation data suggests that inconsistencies between the global discourses and the discourses and structures that teachers confront in their day-to-day lives, together with the decisions teachers made in response to structural constraints, created constraining conditions for the change from GCE O-level to I/SGCSE. The study adds to knowledge on curriculum change and implementation through insights into the enabling and constraining effects of mechanisms operating at a deeper level of reality on curriculum-change decisions and on the ability of teachers to implement curriculum changes. The focus on the deeper level of reality may therefore contribute towards emancipatory knowledge which could be used not only by the Ministry of Education and Training and teachers in Swaziland but also elsewhere to inform future planning, decision making, and practice in relation to curriculum change and implementation.

The aim of this thesis entitled "System of development and training of employees in the selected company" is an analysis of education and development of employees in the company XY. In the work is used fictive company name XY to preserve the anonymity of the organization. The work is divided into two parts. The first part ( one third of total volume ) is focused on theory. The remaining part is practical work, which is targeted on the specific analysis of the company XY. The theoretical part aims at clarifying the possible approaches to company training and development of its employees, further at objectives and functions of education, region and method development and education, and finally at systematic training cycle. The practical part is focused not only on an analysis of the process of education and development of employees in the company XY, but also to get feedback from the employees themselves. To obtain the necessary information were used in addition to internal company documents also two surveys: Quantitative research (survey) and qualitative research (expert interviews). It can be said that based on the results of both studies there was a consensus of obtained information (results). Based on this information and findings were made proposals to improve the education and development of the analyzed company.