This dissertation provides a formal and functional analysis of grammatical voice in Sasak, an Austronesian language spoken in Eastern Indonesia. The research addresses two primary questions, which are (1) how does Sasak clause structure and morphosyntax vary across dialects? and (2) what shapes speakers’ syntactic production, namely grammatical voice choices? Answers to these questions are pursued via elicitation data, a corpus analysis, and results of two language production experiments. The first part of the dissertation examines how Sasak dialects differ syntactically and morphosyntactically. Data from embedded clauses, clitics, and possessive pronominal clitics are used to argue that that Central Sasak maintains two distinct transitive clause types despite the lack of the overt morphological contrast found with transitive verbs in Eastern Sasak. These data also support prior arguments (Davies, 1993; Guilfoyle, Hung, & Travis, 1992; Shibatani, 2008) that Indonesian languages have either two grammatical subject positions, or both a subject and grammatical topic position in the case of Sasak. Many Austronesian languages spoken on Indonesia’s Java Island and surrounding islands share a cognate nasal prefix that is generally found in the presence of preverbal actors (Arka, 2009; Davies, 2005; Sneddon, 1996). This dissertation presents data from three Sasak dialects that show how multiple, morphologically distinct nasal prefixes in Sasak dialects (also noted by Austin, 2012) correlate with two syntactic facts: first, what argument may be extracted out of vP; and secondly, whether or not the lexical verb projects an internal argument. These facts are accounted for in a Minimalist framework (Chomsky, 1993, 2001) by permitting variation to target single features on syntactic heads (as proposed by Aldridge, 2008). The second half of the dissertation investigates what factors shape speakers’ grammatical voice choices. Speakers’ production patterns can clearly be understood as shaped by the structural properties of their specific language(s), and this is also true in Sasak. However, what about when multiple word orders and voice choices are possible? When languages allow for syntactic options, are there universal non-syntactic constraints that exert influence on the production and syntactic coding choices? This dissertation explores potential universal biases identified in literature that has grown out of Bock and Warren’s (1985:50) work on Conceptual Accessibility, or the “ease with which the mental representation of some potential referent can be activated in, or retrieved from, memory”. The specific biases examined for Sasak in the current work are Discourse Topicality (Givón, 1983), animacy (Branigan, Pickering, & Tanaka, 2008), and noun phrase length (MacDonald, 2013; Tanaka, Branigan, McLean, & Pickering, 2011). Results of a corpus analysis are combined with data from two production experiments, and show that both animacy and topicality affect voice selection in Sasak. Specifically, [+animate] and [+topical] noun phrases are produced earlier in a sentence, thereby affecting the grammatical voice produced. Also, Sasak speakers exhibit a ‘long before short’ bias (i.e., placing longer noun phrases before relatively shorter ones in utterances), affecting voice selection as well. Contextualized in cross-linguistic data, this supports the argument made in this dissertation that the cognitive effect of the semantic richness and salience of longer nouns is relative to the speaker’s stage in planning and producing an utterance.

In this research a heuristic algorithm is developed for searching and identifying preferred actions as applied to the bus route design problem. The search routine evaluates each subsequent segment added to the route in the context of the value of that segment and also the value of future decisions and opportunities for subsequent segments. The total overall maximum accessibility of the system is calculated using a minimum path network between each node pair and adding the accessibility of all route segments. This is equivalent to assuming that there was a direct shortest path route between every two destinations in the network. The quality of the designed network is obtained by comparing the share of the total benefits obtained from the heuristic with the share of the costs incurred with respect to a minimum path network. Several test cases and network scenarios are studied to evaluate the analytical tool developed. In addition, different performance measures are used to identify the connecting routes that increase the accessibility of the system.

The aim of this study is to examine the digital tools that are available for students and teachers to use in an English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom and their perceptions of the inclusion of digital tools. A questionnaire intended to provide the results has been distributed. The questionnaire consists of both open and closed questions. A further analysis of previous research concerning the inclusion of digital tools is also included in this study and is used to compare with the raw data collected. The data retrieved demonstrates that educators mainly use digital tools when teaching. The results also show that students have access to a myriad of online learning platforms which induce motivation. In conclusion, digital tools are appreciated amongst both teachers and students, although the teachers appear to view the inclusion of digital tools in the classroom as more positive than the students.

<p>Mobiltelefoni är ett ständigt ämne då det hela tiden sker utvecklingar. Dock finns det en gruppsom inte har lika stort deltagande i detta område som andra. Dessa personer är synskadade på olika nivåer. Vi har i denna uppsats studerat hård- och mjukvaror för synskadade inom mobiltelefoni ur en användares perspektiv. Vi har ställt frågan:</p><p><p><em>”Vilka särskilda behov gällande mobiltelefoni har synskadade användare och hur kan dessa omsättas i hårdvara och mjukvara?”</em></p><p>Vi har genom telefonintervjuer identifierat åtta användares behov av hård- och mjukvara för synskadade för att kunna ge förslag på en anpassad hårdvara samt en förbättring av en mjukvara. Vi har vidare utvärderat dessa behov i en workshop med synskadade användare för att få ett slutgiltigt förslag på hård- och mjukvara som är tillgänglig och användbar för synskadade personer. Vi har funnit att de viktigaste attributen i hård- och mjukvara är en tydlig logik i uppbyggnaden samt funktionalitet och enkelhet.</p></p>

<p>Tio procent av Sveriges befolkning har någon form av funktionsnedsättning. Var tionde person har alltså särskilda behov i sitt resande och är därmed beroende av att hela destinationens miljö är tillgänglig. Tillgänglighet är någonting som Stockholm Stad arbetar med då de har som mål att år 2010 vara världens mest tillgängliga huvudstad. Stockholm är en destination och en destination består av många olika aktörer, både kommersiella och icke kommersiella. Studien syftar därför dels till att undersöka om, och i så fall hur, en god tillgänglighet i Stockholm skulle påverka de enskilda turistiska aktörerna på destinationen. Studien syftar även till att undersöka vad dessa aktörer har för inställning till och motiv för tillgänglighetsanpassningar. Tillgänglighet kan studeras utifrån olika aspekter men denna studie kommer främst att behandla fysisk tillgänglighet utifrån ett etiskt och ekonomiskt perspektiv.</p><p>I denna studie används en kvalitativ metod och ett hermeneutiskt synsätt. För att undersöka tillgänglighetsaspekter i turismbranschen intervjuades respondenter från Stockholm Stad, Stockholm Visitors Board, Sveriges Hotell och Restaurangföretagare, Clarion Hotel Stockholm, Hotell Birger Jarl, Nordic Light Hotel och Scandic Hotels.</p><p>I studien används artiklar som behandlar etik och ansvarsfullt företagande (bland annat Corporate Social Responsibility) samt på vilket sätt tillgänglighet kan vara till godo för turismföretag och samhället. Studien presenterar även tidigare forskning som belyser betydelsen av samverkan på en destination och svårigheter i att separera destinationen och de turistiska aktörerna från varandra. Dessutom presenteras lagar och regler kring tillgänglighetsanpassning för att ge en övergripande bild av vad som lagmässigt krävs av aktörerna.</p><p>Resultatet i undersökningen visar bland annat att turismföretag anser sig ta ett samhällsansvar när de gör tillgänglighetsanpassningar. Företagen vill vara etiska och tillgodose alla kunder, vilket inkluderar personer med funktionsnedsättning. Aktörerna anser samtidigt att ökad tillgänglighet skapar konkurrensfördelar då de får ett bredare kundunderlag samt bättre rykte och image genom sina anpassningar. De vill även vara affärsdrivande, det vill säga att investeringarna måste stå i proportion till kostnaderna. Med andra ord, om investeringar i tillgänglighetsanpassning inte skulle generera tillräckligt stora fördelar skulle företag inte anpassa mer än vad lagen kräver. Den etiska handlingen gällande tillgänglighetsanpassningar sker alltså inte alltid i osjälviskt syfte utan för att skapa ekonomiska fördelar genom gott rykte och bredare kundunderlag.</p><p>Resultatet visar även att turismaktörerna i Stockholm skulle gynnas av att staden blev världens mest tillgängliga huvudstad. Detta skulle resultera i att staden fick fler besökare vilket i sin tur skulle ge fler affärstillfällen för de enskilda turismföretagen.</p> / <p>Ten percent of Sweden’s inhabitants have some kind of disability. That is, every ten person has special needs when it comes to travelling, and therefore is depended on whether the destination is accessible or not. In their goal for year 2010 Stockholm City wants to be the most accessible capital in the whole world.</p><p>The destination involves many different operators, both commercial and non-commercial. This study is a research about how good the accessibility in Stockholm is, and how this would affect the individual tourism operators in Stockholm. Furthermore, this study’s purpose is to find out what the operators think about the accessibility adjustments. Accessibility can be studied from different aspects, but this specific study will first of all treat the accessibility from an ethic and economical perspective.</p><p>Qualitative methods have been used in this study, in order to investigate accessibility within the tourism line. Respondents from Stockholm City, Stockholm Visitors Board, the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Association, Clarion Hotel Stockholm, Hotel Birger Jarl, the Nordic Light Hotel, and Scandic Hotels, have been interviewed.</p><p>In this study articles about ethics and responsible spirits of enterprise are used (for instance Corporate Social Responsibility), as well as in what way accessibility can be good for tourism enterprises and the society. The study also presents earlier research that brings up the signification of co-operation at a destination, plus how it is difficult to separate the destination and the tourism operators. Additionally, laws and rules about accessibility are presented to give an overall picture about what the operators need to do according to the law.</p><p>The results show that the operators believe that they take liability against the society when they do accessibility adjustments. The operators want to be ethic and satisfy all customers, disabled people included. The operators also believe that increased access create competition advantages when they get more customers, plus a better reputation and image. They want to make profits, which means that the investments must be in proportion to the expenses. In other words, if the investments wouldn’t be profitable enough the operators wouldn’t adjust more than the law says. The ethic deed about accessibility adjustments is not always an unselfish cause but a way to make a profit by good reputation and more customers.</p><p>The analysis shows that the operators in Stockholm would be favored if the city became the most accessible capital in the world. This would result in that the city got more visitors, which would generate more business opportunities for the individual tourism operators.</p>

<p>This thesis undertakes two main tasks; to explore, within the authentic educational context, variables that influence the quality and outcomes of the knowledge-constructing activity during the simulation exercise; and to find appropriate instruments and methods to measure these variables, processes and outcomes.</p><p>Closed-ended tasks that provided a high degree of structure, i.e., supported students’ regulation of learning during the simulation exercise, were more beneficial for perceived improvement of declarative knowledge and students’ motivation than open-ended tasks. Open-ended tasks did however lead to substantial shifts in students’ cognitive focus in subsequent laboratory exercises and improvement of students’ level of chemistry reasoning in interviews.</p><p>Student attitudes toward learning proved important in the first paper where significantly higher ability to apply chemistry knowledge in interviews could be found for students with relativistic attitudes compared to those with more dualistic perspectives on learning. In the subsequent papers, the effects of attitudes were not as clear, possibly due to too small differences in the learning situations that were compared.</p><p>Quality of the learning discourse during simulation was measured with three qualitatively different methods, focusing on partly different aspects. The different methods gave very similar results regarding the relative quality of the discourses. Thus, “quality” as such seems to be an underlying feature that permeates many aspects of the discourse and consequently could be targeted in different ways, e.g., focusing on quantitative as well as qualitative aspects. The analyses revealed several components of quality; co-operative activity, correctness and complexity of chemistry reasoning, discussion length and intensity, ability to realize cognitive conflict, and reference to theory while reasoning.</p><p>Doing the simulation exercise in a distributed learning setting (written e-communication), supported discussions with higher accuracy and complexity of chemistry reasoning and frequent references to theory while the face-to-face situation allowed for longer and more intense discussions and a higher degree of co-operative activity. Not very surprisingly, high-quality discussions were characterized by high scores in all these components. There were indications that relatively good pre-knowledge might be required to benefit fully from face-to-face discussions.</p><p>The validity of instruments and methods, used to measure flow experiences, attitudes (i.e., epistemological beliefs), knowledge accessibility (intuitive knowledge) and discourse quality are discussed thoroughly. Special interest has been devoted to whether qualitative data should be quantified or not, providing arguments in favor of quantitative methods for analyzing and reporting qualitative data.</p>

<p>This thesis consists of three papers that examine college choice and earnings among university graduates in Sweden.</p><p>Paper [I] analyzes how geographical accessibility to higher education affects university enrollment decisions in Sweden. The empirical findings show that the probability of enrollment in university education increases with accessibility to university education. The results also indicate that accessibility adds to the likelihood of attending a university within the region of residence. Both these findings are robust with regard to different specifications of accessibility. The empirical results furthermore indicate that the enrollment decisions of individuals with a less privileged background are more sensitive to accessibility to university education than are the decisions of individuals from a more favorable background.</p><p>Paper [II] examines the effect on earnings of graduating from five different college groups. The paper relies on selection on observables and linear regression to identify the earnings effect of college choice. Contrary to the majority of previous Swedish studies, we do not find any systematic differences in estimated earnings between college graduates from the different college groups. This finding does not only hold when considering all college graduates, but also when focusing on men and women separately as well as when considering college graduates in two specific fields of education. The results suggest that an estimator of the earnings effects of college choice that does not properly adjust for ability is likely to be substantially biased.</p><p>Paper [III] estimates the causal effect on earnings of graduating from old universities rather than new universities/university colleges. The study compares estimates from several different matching methods and linear regression. We cannot find any significant differences in earnings between graduates from the two groups of colleges. This holds for male and female sub-samples covering all majors, as well as male and female sub-samples covering two broad fields of education. The results are robust with regard to different methods of propensity score matching and regression adjustment. Furthermore, the results indicate little sensitivity with regard to the empirical support in the data and alternative specifications of the propensity scores.</p>

<p>Purpose/Aim: In the information and communication technology society (ICT) we live in today it is easy to feel that we are constantly expected to be available. The daily contact with the Internet and the use of cell phones has changed our way to communicate. With this in mind in combination with the increased stress among young adults my aim is to investigate how young adults, aged 23-26 years, experience to be constantly connected and available through the Internet and the cell phone. What are their opinions, attitudes and feelings about what this entails in their lives?</p><p>Material/Method: The essay is based on four focus group interviews with sixteen students from Uppsala University aged 23-26, two groups consisting of women and two groups consisting of men. The ICT & Internet research is developing rapidly which led me to do an exploratory study that is hypothesis-generating and which I hope can be used for forthcoming research of the consequences of the ICT society. The empiric result has been analyzed from a behavioural science perspective.</p><p>Main results: The results have been interesting from several perspectives. The focus groups seem to think that the Internet and cell phone use is the best thing that has happened. They are so-called "Multitaskers" and have no problems to do several things simultaneously. The relationship between ICT and stress becomes slightly more noticeable among the girls. I dare to say that the constant availability do result in a certain stress, which I based on the clear statements about stress that came up between the lines. The focus groups are highly dependent on both their cell phone and access to Internet. They have also developed new cell phone behaviours that are customized to different situations and people.</p>

Background: Urban form is a contributor to physical inactivity, which is a problem around the world. The association between urban form and physical activity is not fully understood, in part because improved methodologies of assessing urban form are necessary. This thesis consists of four studies that examined the association between urban form and physical activity in Edmonton, Alberta, using Geographic Information Systems. The research goals of this thesis were: (1) to compare two objective methods of assessing urban form walkability; (2) to examine the association between objective and subjective urban form measures and physical activity; and (3) to compare self-reported physical activity of individuals living in high and low walkability neighborhoods. Methods: Study 1 addressed Goal 1 and focused on objectively measuring urban form walkability based on public health and architectural (space syntax) measures. Study 2 addressed Goal 2 and focused on urban form association with self-reported physical activity. Study 3 addressed Goals 2 and 3 and focused on urban form association with self-reported walking. Study 4 addressed Goal 3 and involved an observational study of the pedestrian, cyclist, and vehicular movement in four neighbourhoods stratified by walkability and socio-economic status (SES). Results: Study 1 revealed agreement between public health and space syntax measures of assessing urban form. Study 2 revealed that only the objective environment was associated with physical activity. Study 3 revealed that only the perceived environment was associated with walking. Study 3 also revealed that walking as recommended was not different for individuals living in environments objectively assessed as higher versus lower in walkability. Study 4 revealed that observed pedestrian movement was higher in volume in neighbourhoods objectively assessed as higher in walkability. Cyclist movement was lower in volume in the neighbourhood classified as lower in walkability and in SES than in the other three neighbourhoods. Vehicular movement was no different in volume in the four neighbourhoods. Conclusion: Both objective and subjective urban form influence physical activity. A common Social Ecological Models - Space Syntax framework would enable a better understanding of urban form influences on physical activity.

Pannexins are vertebrate proteins with limited sequence homology to the invertebrate gap junction proteins, the innexins. However, in contrast to innexins and the vertebrate connexins, pannexins do not form gap junction channels. Instead they appear to solely function as unpaired membrane channels allowing the flux of molecules, including ATP, across the plasma membrane. We provided additional evidence for their ATP release function by demonstrating that the connexin mimetic peptides, which were thought to inhibit ATP release through connexin channels, do not inhibit their host connexin channels but instead inhibit pannexin1 channels by a mechanism of steric block. Therefore, the inhibitory effects of mimetic peptides on ATP release may represent supporting evidence for a role of pannexin1 in ATP release. We also analyzed the pore structure of pannexin1 channels with the Substituted Cysteine Accessibility Method. The thiol reagents MBB and MTSET reacted with several positions in the external portion of the first transmembrane segment and the first extracellular loop. In addition, MTSET reactivity was found in the internal portion of TM3. These data suggest that portions of TM1, E1 and TM3 line the pore of pannexin1 channels. Thus, the pore structure of pannexin1 is similar to that of connexin channels.