This study first examines the effectiveness of stealing thunder in increasing the target’s liking for the discloser. The study further inspects liking relative to the amount of information known about the discloser prior to their initial interaction. Additionally, the target’s perception of the negativity of the information revealed is observed. 120 subjects participated in an experiment during which they were either exposed to the negative information via the confederate or the experimenter or were not exposed at all. Results, although interesting, were largely inconsistent with the hypotheses. This could have been due to several factors namely, poor experimental execution and unreliability of measurement. However, stealing thunder, with further testing, has several implications for the current state of the stealing thunder literature and future research.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka fängelsereformsattityder i Sverige med syfte att utreda om dessa korrelerade med kön, politisk tillhörighet, ålder och urvalsgrupp. Detta utförs genom att replikera en tidigare amerikansk studie inom samma ämne. Resultaten från den svenska studien jämfördes även med den amerikanska. Urvalsgrupperna utgjordes av allmänheten(N=105), före-detta kriminella (N=48) och högskolestudenter vid Högskolan i Skövde (N=252). Respondenterna nåddes via en mailenkät.Resultaten visade att de svenska respondenterna hade mer positiva attityder gentemot fängelsereformer än deras amerikanska motparter.Före-detta kriminella var mer positivt inställda till fängelsereformer än studenter och allmänheten. Vad gäller politisk tillhörighet, hade vänsterblocket mer positiva attityder mot fängelsereformer än högerblocket. Ålder hade ett positivt samband med fängelsereformsattityder. Det framkom även att i Sverige har kvinnor till en högre grad än män, höll attityden att våldsbrottsförövare borde få en hårdare bestraffning än andra brottslingar. Det skulle kunna vara av intresse att en studie utförs med syfte att undersöka dessa attityder relaterat till kön, för att se ifall det rör sig om interkulturella skillnader. / The purpose of this study was to investigate prison reform attitudes to see if they correlated with gender, political affiliation, age and sample group. The sample groups were the general population (N=105), ex-criminals (N=48) and students at the University of Skövde (N=252). The respondents were reached by an email survey. This was done by replicating a previously done American survey study. The results from the Swedish study were reviewed in comparison with the American study. The results showed that Swedish respondents held more positive prison reform attitudes than did their American counterparts. Ex-criminals were more positive towards prison reforms than students and the general population. Regarding political affiliation, the Swedish left-wing had more positive attitudes towards prison reforms than did the right-wing. The study also found a positive correlation between age and prison reform attitudes. It was found that Swedish women had more punitive attitudes towards violent criminals than other criminals, than did the men. It would be interesting to research these attitudes and how they relate to gender, to see whether they are a product of intercultural differences.

This research studied a possible strategy to attract Nicaraguan people to visit Taiwan as tourists. Taiwan is known as East Asia’s sole island bisected by the Tropic of Cancer. Undoubtedly, it is rich in tourism resources; it’s developing its destinations, theme and lifestyle as well as health and fitness tourism. Taiwan has great potential in ecological travel such as bird watching, and whale and dolphin watching, and theme travel like festival tourism, cultural tourism and medical/recuperative tourism. Now with firsthand experience, Taiwan has shown me fascinating places of unique splendor, beauty and traditions. As a Nicaraguan citizen, I have sympathized and shared similar experiences with my countrymen (Nicaraguans) while living and studying in Taiwan. They have manifested great interest in traveling. Undoubtedly, Nicaraguan people are willing to visit, know, and explore places, especially Asian countries. As a result, we did interviews to a focus group of Nicaraguan students, first-time Nicaraguan visitors and a diplomat to study whether my countrymen would choose to travel to Taiwan as tourists. In the interviews, we found common themes, categories and patterns that suggest to us that Nicaraguans would choose Taiwan as a tourist destination. Providing affordable tourist packages to these visitors would give the opportunity to have access and channels to travel to Taiwan. This in turn, led us to suggest a way to attract Nicaraguan visitors to travel to Taiwan as tourists. Keywords: Tourism, Nicaragua, Tourist attraction, Tourist destination, Destination image

The range of applications for magnetic micro- and nano-particles is constantlyexpanding, in particular in medicine and biology. A number of applications involve particletrapping and deviation under the effect of a magnetic field and field gradient. In mostpublications, the required magnetic fields are produced either using soft magnetic elementspolarized by an external magnetic field, electromagnets or bulk permanent magnets.Micromagnets produce high fields and favor autonomy and stability while downscalingleads to an increase of field gradients. The challenge is to produce good quality, hardmagnetic films in the range of 1 to 100 μm both in thickness and lateral dimensions and tointegrate them into a Bio-Mag-MEMS.Physical vapor deposition (triode sputtering) is used to prepare high quality rare earthmagnets in thick film form. In order to obtain field gradients in the lateral directions, threetechniques have been developed:• Topographic patterning, in which the film itself is patterned either by sputtering ontopre-etched substrates or by etching the magnetic film.• Thermo-magnetic patterning, which exploits the temperature dependance of coercivityto locally reorient the magnetization.• Micro magnetic imprinting, which consists of organizing magnetic powder with the aidof the above-cited magnets, then embedding the powder into a polymeric matrix.Such micro-magnets are autonomous, having no requirements for a cumbersome externalfield source nor power supply.Here we demonstrate the potential to develop autonomous devices based on micromagnetarrays. Controlled positioning using superparamagnetic particles as a model is shown at first.Then, the magnet arrays are used to study endocytic processes using magnetically labelledbiological elements.In a step towards device integration, microfluidic channels are produced above themagnet arrays. Magnetic and non-magnetic particles are pumped through the devices andprecise positioning, as well as guiding and sorting are performed. High purity is obtained inthe sorted solutions.The good results obtained in the development of micromagnetic flux sources, integrationinto microdevices and particle/cell handling and sorting indicate the high potential of thiswork for actual biological and medical applications. Moreover, the biocompatibility andautonomy of such devices allow their use in micro-total-analysis systems, point-of-care orimplantable devices. / Les micro et nano billes magnétiques sont de plus en plus utilisées en Biologie et enMédecine, pour une large gamme d’applications. Plusieurs applications utilisent le piégeageet le guidage de ces billes sous l’effet d’un champ et d’un gradient de champ magnétique.Dans la plupart des applications le champ magnétique est macroscopique, créé par un aimantou un électro-aimant. L’intégration plus poussée est souvent envisagée, dans les articlesscientifiques, par des microbobines ou par des éléments magnétiques doux. Ceux-ci doiventalors être polarisés par un champ externe (de nouveau, un électroaimant ou un aimant).Les micro-aimants mis au point à l’Institut Néel permettent d’obtenir les mêmesinductions que les meilleurs aimants du marché et, par conséquent, de par la réductiond’échelle, des gradients de champ intenses. Ils sont, de plus, favorables à l’autonomie et àla stabilité du système. Le défi est de produire de bonnes couches magnétiques avec desdimensions de l’ordre de 1 à 100 μm et de les intégrer à des Bio-Mag-MEMS.Le dépôt physique par phase vapeur (pulvérisation cathodique triode) est utilisé pourle dépôt de ces aimants de haute qualité, en couche épaisse, et à base de terres-rares. Dansle but d’optimiser les gradients latéraux des champs magnétiques, trois techniques ont étédéveloppées:• Le topographic patterning, dans lequel une couche est structurée géométriquement,soit par dépôt sur un substrat pré-gravé, soit par gravure humide après le dépôt.• Le thermo-magnetic patterning, qui exploite la dépendance thermique de la coercivitépour réorienter localement l’aimantation de la couche.• Le micro magnetic imprinting, qui consiste à organiser des particules magnétiquesà l’aide des aimants mentionnés ci-dessus et, ensuite, de les noyer dans une couchepolymérique.Les micro-aimants présentent l’avantage, majeur pour un microsystème, d’êtreautonomes. Ils ne nécessitent pas de source externe de champ magnétique, ni d’alimentationélectrique. Lors de ces travaux, nous développons des prototypes de microsystèmes fluidiquesautonomes basés sur des réseaux de micro-aimants. En premier lieu, la capture parattraction et le positionnement controllé, en utilisant des particules superparamagnétiquescomme modèle. Puis, l’étude de phénomènes d’endocytose à l’aide d’éléments biologiquesmarqués magnétiquement. Dans le but de passer à l’intégration des systèmes, des canauxmicrofluidiques sont développes sur les réseaux magnétiques. Des particules magnétiques etnon-magnétiques sont introduites dans les canaux et leur positionnement, guidage et tri sontréalisés. L’analyse des solutions triées indique une haute efficacité du système.Les résultats obtenus lors du développement de ces micro-sources de champ magnétiqueset de leur intégration dans des microsystèmes, ainsi que la manipulation et tri de particules,démontrent le grand potentiel de ces recherches pour des applications grand public à dessystèmes biologiques et médicaux. De plus, la biocompatibilité et l’autonomie de ces systèmespermettent leur utilisation dans des microsystèmes d’analyse totale (μTAS), des systèmespoint-of-care (POC) et des implants biomédicaux, potentiellement jetables et bas coût.

Ce mémoire présente des techniques tout-optiques visant à préserver les paramètres physiques d’un signal télécom au cours de sa propagation dans une fibre optique de plusieurs kilomètres, tels que son état de polarisation, son profil d’intensité et son spectre. Il se compose en deux majeures parties.La première présente tout d’abord l’attraction de polarisation, ayant lieu au cours de l’interaction entre deux faisceaux contrapropagatifs, et qui permet d’imposer un état fixe de polarisation au signal à la sortie de la fibre indépendamment de son état initial. Des applications tout-optiques basées sur l’Omnipolariseur, un dispositif mis au point à Dijon et permettant le contrôle de ce phénomène non linéaire, sont ensuite développées. Elles fonctionnalisent l’état de polarisation d’un signal OOK-RZ à 10 Gbit/s pour mettre au point une mémoire optique à bascule, un routeur, un brouilleur chaotique, et une technique de copie/dissimulation de paquets de données dans une fibre spun de 5 km.La deuxième réalise la première démonstration expérimentale des parois de domaines de polarisation qui annulent les effets dégradant les profils d’intensité et spectral d’un signal codé au cours de sa propagation. Ce phénomène provient du couplage non-linéaire entre les deux modes de polarisation orthogonaux d’une lumière qui se propage dans un milieu Kerr en régime normal de dispersion, et provoque une modulation en opposition de phase des deux modes le long de la fibre. Il est possible de verrouiller deux trains d’impulsions optiques d’intensité complémentaire de sorte à ce que les impulsions ne subissent plus les effets de distorsion intervenant au sein de la fibre afin de conserver l’information à transmettre. Ainsi une propagation sans distorsion a pu être réalisée sur 50 km. / The second performs the first experimental demonstration of the polarization domain walls which cancel the effects which degrade the intensity and spectral profile of a telecom signal during propagation. This phenomenon comes from non-linear coupling between the two orthogonal polarization modes of light propagating in a Kerr medium in normal dispersion regime, and causes a modulation in phase opposition of the two modes along the fiber. It is possible to lock two optical pulse trains complementary intensity so that the pulses do not suffer the effects of distortion occurring in the fiber in order to maintain the information to be transmitted. And a distortion-free propagation was achieved on 50 km.

This study was designed to determine the effect of touch on the interpersonal attraction between therapist and patient. Four instruments were used to measure the effect, those measurements included "Client's Personal Reaction Questionnaire," "Attitudes Toward Psychotherapy and Psychotherapists Scale," actual physical distance and actual timed verbal measure. The general nature of the research hypotheses stated that the touch technique would increase the interpersonal attraction of the patients toward the therapist as indicated by the four measures. The results of the study led to the conclusion that touch during a single interview session effects statistically significant change in interpersonal attraction when measured by actual physical distance. However change in interpersonal attraction was not found when measured by the "Client's Personal Reaction Questionnaire," "Attitudes Toward Psychotherapy and Psychotherapists Scale" and an actual timed verbal measure. Implications of the study, based on observations of the experimenter, were that touch is successful in helping hospitalized neuropsychiatric patients increase their interpersonal attraction and that this attraction cannot always be measured by global questionnaires and specific amounts of verbalization. A similar study should be replicated with subjects other than neuropsychiatric patients, such as hospitalized medical patients, college students and children.

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No description available.

This thesis examines how novel invariants called the "stability index" as proposed by Podvigina and Ashwin can be used to characterize the local geometry of riddled basins of attraction for both skew and non-skew product systems. In particular, it would be interesting to understand how the stability index behaves on the basin boundary between multiple basins of attraction. Then we can ask this question: How can we identify when a basin is riddled? To answer this, we present three models with the presence of riddled basins. In the first model, we present a skew product system of a simple example of a piecewise linear map. We prove that the riddled basin occurs within a certain range of parameter and calculate the stability index analytically for this map. Our results for the stability index at a point show that for Lebesgue almost all points in the map, the index is positive and for some points the index may be negative. We verify these results with our numerical computation for this index. We also make a corollary claiming that the formula for the stability index at a point can be expressed in terms of the stability index for an attractor and Lyapunov exponents for this map. This suggests that this index could be useful as a diagnostic tool to study bifurcation of the riddled basins of attraction. In the second model, we refer to a skew product map studied by Keller. Previously, Keller computed the stability index for an attractor in his map whereas in this thesis, we use an alternative way to compute the index; that is on the basins of attraction for Keller's map, found by inverting his map. Using the same map, we also verify maximum and minimum measures as obtained in his paper by studying Birkhoff averages on periodic points of Markov map in his system. We also conjecture result by Keller and Otani on the dimension of zero sets of invariant graph (i.e. basin boundary) that appears in Keller's map to a complete range of a parameter in the map. The last model is a non-skew product map which is also has a riddled basin. For this map, we compute the stability index for an attractor on the baseline of the map. The result indicates that the index is positive for Lebesgue almost all points whenever the riddled basin occurs.

Studien gjordes i syfte att besvara huruvida färgskillnad, kontrastskillnad eller en kombination av dessa var avgörande i att vägleda spelare i förstapersonsspel. Enligt hur kompositionstekniker fungerar och används inom grafiskt arbete skapades en hypotes och en tillhörande nollhypotes. Dessa prövades genom frekvensfördelning och univariat analys efter en artefakt testats.  Denna artefakt var i form av en spelbar bana som producerades med varierande uppsättningar av ljusstyrkor och färg, kallat attraheringsmetoder. Denna bana hade då flera tvåvägskorridorsval där en väg på förhand hade definierats som ”den korrekta vägen” och det var längs denna väg som en attraheringsmetod t.ex. ett starkare ljus placerades. Data samlades in genom öppet deltagande observation samt inspelning av aktiviteten på datorn. Efter banan spelats igenom hölls även ett kvalitativt moment i form av en intervju med syfte att etablera vilka faktorer som informanten trodde påverkat dennes vägval samt om de var medvetna om vilken väg de tagit. Det studien slutligen kom fram till var att spelare oftast tenderar att följa vägar som har starkare ljus. Ibland följs även vägar utav en utstickande färg men oftast följs en starkt upplyst väg. Både hypotesen och nollhypotesen är därmed falsifierad och den undersökta frågan kan besvaras med att skillnader i kontrast är det som i flest fall tenderar att vägleda spelare i ett förstapersonsspel.