<p>This thesis has investigated and analysed whether or not the Nord Stream Natural Gas Pipeline has affected or changed Europe's security situation. By analysing how the Nord Stream Natural Gas Pipeline has been described as a political or economic project by the EU, one can conclude whether the project has been securitized by the EU or not. This is done through the study of official EU documents. The documents have been analysed using framework for sector analysis  and securitization as theorised by the Copenhagen School of international relations. By distinguishing the different conceptions of threat, security and methods discussed in these documents it is possible to analyse whether arguments belong to either the economic or political sector of sector analysis, and how they can be seen as signs of securitization. This has been done by utilizing qualitative text analysis in a case study framework. The thesis concludes that the  Nord Stream Natural Gas Pipeline has not been securitized as a threat by the EU. On the contrary, the project is endorsed as a part of energy proliferation. The EU insist and encourages upon the project and several similar ones in order to ensure energy security for the EU in the future.</p>

<p>Personer med autism behöver ha människor runt omkring sig som förstår dem, vilket kräver kunskap både om autism och om den specifika individen. För att kunna uppnå detta behövs ett fungerande samarbete mellan föräldrar och personal. Syftet med denna studie var att jämföra personal och föräldrars syn på personer med autism. För att undersöka detta genomfördes 10 intervjuer som analyserades med meningskoncentrering som analysmetod. Resultatet visade att föräldrar och personal betonade olika delar av störningen. Föräldrar ansåg sig ha samma syn som personal, medan personalen ansåg sig ha en annan syn än föräldrarna, något som kunde bero på att de hade olika referensgrupper i åtanke. Samarbetet ansågs kunna förbättras genom att ha fler möten. Resultaten bekräftar tidigare forskning.</p>

Darbe atskleidžiama preliminariosios viešųjų pirkimų sutarties instituto samprata, aptariama paskirtis, įrodoma, jog šis institutas yra specifinis ir modernus teisinis įrankis, leidžiantis optimizuoti viešųjų pirkimų procedūrų vykdymą. Darbe nuosekliai išanalizuojamas ir paaiškinamas šiuo metu galiojantis su preliminariosios viešųjų pirkimų sutarties institutu tiesiogiai/netiesiogiai susijęs teisinis reguliavimas. Ypatingas dėmesys skiriamas tų teisės normų, kurios potencialiai gali sukelti jų probleminį praktinį pritaikymą, aptarimui, taip pat pateikiama nemažai situacinių pavyzdžių ir hipotetinių problemų sprendimų variantų. / This paper deals with the conception of the Institute of Framework Agreement in Public Procurement. Purposes of concluding such agreements are discussed, the point about this institute as a specific and modern legal mean, which optimizes the performance of public procurement procedures, is substantiated. The current legal regulation of the institute of framework agreement in public procurement is analysed coherently. Ambiguous legal rules, which generate potential problems of use of these agreements in practice, are taken as one of the main topics for consideration. There are also situational examples and various hypothetical practical problems solutions proposed in this paper.

WTO Agreements have failed to adequately cater for the needs of developing countries. The WTO Agreements, particularly the SPS Agreements has failed to take into account the special needs of developing and least developing countries and clearly their interests have received no representation in the Agreement. Instead of reducing the negative impact of the SPS measures, the Agreement itself has become a barrier to trade. The problems of its implementation inclusive of the expertise, the high costs of conformity, lack of infrastructure and adequate resources have created further restrictions for exporters in international commerce. The failure to adequately deal with the implementation problems of developing countries is evident in the stalemate that culminated at the Doha Ministerial Conference which has extended for over a decade. Perhaps the future of African developments lies in regional agreements, since it is clear that the multilateral trading system has failed. Whereas some scholars are of the view that Article 5.7 of the Agreement should be used as model for the precautionary principle. The principle is highly controversial and does not even have a universal definition; its application might prove to be highly problematic. However the trade-environment debate has already taken center stage in the WTO jurisprudence, suggesting possibly the emergence of an Agreement to that effect. One however can only wonder whether in including the trade-environment debate under the ambit of the WTO when clearly it has failed to deal with issues and concerns’ relating to trade only, might be biting much more than it can chew. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Sport dropout during adolescence is a common phenomenon which is connected to motivation. Therefore this thesis investigated the relationship between coaches’ (N = 61, Mage = 40.39) transformational leadership and athletes’ (N = 132, Mage = 20.61) type of motivation in Swedish sport clubs. In addition, the moderating role of personality and self-other agreement ratings were examined. A cross sectional research design was used and data was collected through self-ratings and other ratings. Data was analysed using SPSS and the add-on program Process macro. To investigate the moderating role of personality and level of agreement, coach-athletes dyads were created (N = 38). The result showed that transformational leadership is positively associated with more self-determined types of motivation. Four of the coach’s personality traits (i.e., honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion and conscientiousness) moderated the relationship between transformational leadership and motivation. For the athletes agreeableness moderated this relationship. A majority of the coaches and athletes disagreed in rating the coaches’ transformational behaviours; however the result only showed significant correlation between coaches who underestimated and athletes’ lack of motivation. In conclusion, transformational leadership is suitable in a sport context. Future research could use a longitudinal design to further explore personality’s role in leadership. Practical implications of transformational leadership in connection to education are discussed.

The topic of this dissertation is agreement and case assignment, with particular reference to conjoined noun phrases. The initial chapters look at the different possibilities available in such contexts, including agreement with the features of each individual conjunct, agreement with the features of only one conjunct, or agreement with features computed on the basis of those of the individual conjuncts but not necessarily possessed by them. We propose a way of handling all of these patterns with a single formal mechanism, later applying the same intuitions to the assignment (or non-assignment) of case values by a head to its dependents. Attempts are also made to explore in greater depth some of the factors that might influence the choice of alternative agreement configurations, as well as to extend the scope of the model which we elaborate as we go along to non-conjoined environments where variable agreement occurs. Special emphasis is laid throughout on fluctuations in agreement, either because the controller has mismatched attributes or because the syntactic structure and/or the semantic interpretation allow variation. The final conclusion is that a modular approach to grammar is best placed to deal with the empirical facts. The complexities of the data call for bringing together purely morpho-syntactic, declensional information, syntactic hierarchy, order and constituency, coupled with semantics and pragmatics. The successful, appropriately regulated, interaction of these modules is shown to offer a satisfactory explanation which is difficult to obtain by exclusively relying on syntax or semantics alone.

This thesis investigates the patterning of the Algonquian “central agreement”, i.e. the primary person-number agreement marking, from a diachronic and comparative perspective. The central agreement patterns differ in the two orders: in the conjunct it is fusional and often portmanteau while in the independent it is discontinuous and non-portmanteau. In addition to these differences, there are also some commonalities, such as a pattern in which 1p consistently outranks 2p in both orders. This thesis shows that the differences between the two orders can be taken to reflect variation in the features of the syntactic probe and different morphological spell-out rules, while the shared properties follow from the underlying structure of φ-features. In particular, it is proposed that an additional person feature under the [plural] node causes first person plural to be privileged over second person plural in the competition among vocabulary items in post-syntactic spellout. / October 2016

This study compared three methods of selecting the best discriminating test items and the resultant test reliability of mastery/nonmastery classifications. These three methods were (a) the agreement approach, (b) the phi coefficient approach, and (c) the random selection approach. Test responses from 1,836 students on a 50-item physical science test were used, from which 90 distinct data sets were generated for analysis. These 90 data sets contained 10 replications of the combination of three different sample sizes (75, 150, and 300) and three different numbers of test items (15, 25, and 35). The results of this study indicated that the agreement approach was an appropriate method to be used for selecting criterion-referenced test items at the classroom level, while the phi coefficient approach was an appropriate method to be used at the district and/or state levels. The random selection method did not have similar characteristics in selecting test items and produced the lowest reliabilities, when compared with the agreement and the phi coefficient approaches.

Educators who use criterion-referenced measurement to ascertain the current level of performance of an examinee in order that the examinee may be classified as either a master or a nonmaster need to know the accuracy and consistency of their decisions regarding assignment of mastery states. This study examined the sampling distribution characteristics of two reliability indices that use the squared-error agreement function: Livingston's k^2(X,Tx) and Brennan and Kane's M(C). The sampling distribution characteristics of five indices that use the threshold agreement function were also examined: Subkoviak's Pc. Huynh's p and k. and Swaminathan's p and k. These seven methods of calculating reliability were also compared under varying conditions of sample size, test length, and criterion or cutoff score. Computer-generated data provided randomly parallel test forms for N = 2000 cases. From this, 1000 samples were drawn, with replacement, and each of the seven reliability indices was calculated. Descriptive statistics were collected for each sample set and examined for distribution characteristics. In addition, the mean value for each index was compared to the population parameter value of consistent mastery/nonmastery classifications. The results indicated that the sampling distribution characteristics of all seven reliability indices approach normal characteristics with increased sample size. The results also indicated that Huynh's p was the most accurate estimate of the population parameter, with the smallest degree of negative bias. Swaminathan's p was the next best estimate of the population parameter, but it has the disadvantage of requiring two test administrations, while Huynh's p index only requires one administration.

The focus of this thesis is to analyse the most questionable and presently very discussed points at isme of the arbitration in the Czech Republic. The subject of this thesis is rather extensive, therefore not all aspects of the arbitral proceedings can be concerned. There has been a substantial advancement in arbitration, since Act No. 216/1994 Coll., On Arbitral Proceedings and On Execution of Arbitral Awards took effect. In this thesis I focused on the czech legal framework of arbitration, its imperfections and influence of judicature of the European Court of Justice on the interpretation of the czech law. Pursuant to the questionable facts mentioned above, and under the influence of the judicature of the European Court of Justice and czech court's judicature, the Arbitration Act should be amend. There should be changes especially at the articles concerning arbitrator, arbitration at consumer disputes, and the arbitration contract requirements. The arbitration is means of final and binding dispute rosolution which provides a suitable alternative for the judicial trial, especially at commercial disputes between undertakers - professionals.