Near lossless source coding with side information only at the decoder, was first considered by Slepian and Wolf in 1970s, and rediscovered recently due to applications such as sensor network and distributed video coding. Suppose X is a source and Y is the side information. The coding scheme proposed by Slepian and Wolf, called SW coding, in which information only flows from the encoder to the decoder, was shown to achieve the rate H(X|Y) asymptotically for stationary ergodic source pairs, but not for non-ergodic case, shown by Yang and He. Recently, a new source coding paradigm called interactive encoding and decoding(IED) was proposed for near lossless coding with side information only at the decoder, where information flows in both ways, from the encoder to the decoder and vice verse. The results by Yang and He show that IED schemes are much more appealing than SW coding schemes to applications where the interaction between the encoder and the decoder is possible. However, the IED schemes proposed by Yang and He do not have an intrinsic structure that is amenable to design and implement in practice. Towards practical design, we restrict the encoding method to linear block codes, resulting in linear IED schemes. It is then shown that this restriction will not undermine the asymptotical performance of IED. Another step of practical design of IED schemes is to make the computational complexity incurred by encoding and decoding feasible. In the framework of linear IED, a scheme can be conveniently described by parity check matrices. Then we get an interesting trade-off between the density of the associated parity check matrices and the resulting symbol error probability. To implement the idea of linear IED and follow the instinct provided by the result above, Low Density Parity Check(LDPC) codes and Belief Propagation(BP) decoding are utilized. A successive LDPC code is proposed, and a new BP decoding algorithm is proposed, which applies to the case where the correlation between $Y$ and $X$ can be modeled as a finite state channel. Finally, simulation results show that linear IED schemes are indeed superior to SW coding schemes.

The notion of social capital (SC) is increasingly used as a framework for describing social issues in terrestrial communities. For more than a decade, researchers use the term to mean the set of trust, institutions, social norms, social networks, and organizations that shape the interactions of actors within a society and that are considered to be useful and assets for communities to prosper both economically and socially. Despite growing popularity of social capital especially, among researchers in the social sciences and the humanities, the concept remains ill-defined and its operation and benefits limited to terrestrial communities. In addition, proponents of social capital often use different approaches to analyze it and each approach has its own limitations. <p>This thesis examines social capital within the context of technology-mediated communities (also known as virtual communities) communities. It presents a computational model of social capital, which serves as a first step in the direction of understanding, formalizing, computing and discussing social capital in virtual communities. The thesis employs an eclectic set of approaches and procedures to explore, analyze, understand and model social capital in two types of virtual communities: virtual learning communities (VLCs) and distributed communities of practice (DCoP). <p>There is an intentional flow to the analysis and the combination of methods described in the thesis. The analysis includes understanding what constitutes social capital in the literature, identifying and isolating variables that are relevant to the context of virtual communities, conducting a series of studies to further empirically examine various components of social capital identified in three kinds of virtual communities and building a computational model. <p>A sensitivity analysis aimed at examining the statistical variability of the individual variables in the model and their effects on the overall level of social capital are conducted and a series of evidence-based scenarios are developed to test and update the model. The result of the model predictions are then used as input to construct a final empirical study aimed at verifying the model.<p>Key findings from the various studies in the thesis indicated that SC is a multi-layered, multivariate, multidimensional, imprecise and ill-defined construct that has emerged from a rather murky swamp of terminology but it is still useful for exploring and understanding social networking issues that can possibly influence our understanding of collaboration and learning in virtual communities. Further, the model predictions and sensitivity analysis suggested that variables such as trust, different forms of awareness, social protocols and the type of the virtual community are all important in discussion of SC in virtual communities but each variable has different level of sensitivity to social capital. <p>The major contributions of the thesis are the detailed exploration of social capital in virtual communities and the use of an integrated set of approaches in studying and modelling it. Further, the Bayesian Belief Network approach applied in the thesis can be extended to model other similar complex online social systems.

Children of alcoholics (COAs) are those who grow up in a home where one or more parent is an alcoholic; once adulthood is achieved, they are referred to as adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs). Several risk factors have been identified as a potential result from exposure to an alcoholic environment; however there is a dearth of literature exploring resilience in this population. Descriptive Narrative Inquiry was used to explore the question, Describe the qualities, processes, or internal motivational factors which have facilitated resilience for adult children of alcoholic parents. Two ninety-minute life history interviews were conducted with four participants, including the researcher. The participants were female, middle class, university students who considered themselves to be adult children of alcoholics who are resilient. A composite narrative was used to depict the results of this study, combining the data from each participants life story. The narrative was written in the first-person through the character of Sophie, and the data included is the result of a narrative analysis from the transcripts of the participants data. The narrative depicts the developmental stages of the participants lives, including childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and the present. Their experiences of growing up in an alcoholic home were documented at each stage. A thematic analysis was conducted, extracting the common themes, meaning made, and personal characteristics that were generated within and across participants that contributed to their development of resilience. The results are discussed in four major themes: Being in Relation: Others Create a Difference; Belief Systems: Spirituality, Religion, and Values; The Self: An Evolving Being; and Alcoholism: Meaning in Itself. It is through the dialogue of the participants experiences of resilience that awareness creates opportunity for advocacy for children and adult children of alcoholics. The implications of this research in relation to the experiences of resilience are discussed for children and adult children of alcoholics, educators, and counsellors. Directions for future research are addressed.

Sammanfattning Syfte och frågeställningar Syftet med uppsatsen var att belysa eventuella skillnader i upplevd psykisk hälsa hos två grupper med skiftande trosuppfattning. Studien ville undersöka om trosuppfattning hade inflytande på angivna svar i depressionsenkäten PHQ-9 och hur det i så fall samvarierade med vikten av fysisk aktivitet. Hur stor är prevalensen av depression inom de undersökta grupperna? På vilket sätt samvarierar tro på en högre makt med upplevd psykisk hälsa hos de två undersökta grupperna? Hur ser korrelationen ut mellan trosuppfattning och psykisk hälsa i förhållande till den mellan fysisk aktivitet och psykisk hälsa? Metod Studien är en tvärsnittsstudie som har utförts med hjälp av enkäter för att studera sambandet mellan religiositet och upplevd psykisk hälsa i två grupper bestående av troende och ateister. Enkäten innehöll bland annat PHQ-9, ett validerat instrument för att upptäcka symtom för depression. 52 kristna församlingar i Stockholms län kontaktades via e-post varav fyra besöktes. Utöver detta kontaktades en organisation som tar ställning för sekulär humanism och en organisation som har som syfte att främja folkbildning om vetenskapliga metoder och är obunden i religiösa frågor, detta för att få respondenter med skiftande trosuppfattning. För att utöka antalet respondenter användes även en webbversion av enkäten som komplement till den ursprungliga pappersversionen. Sammanlagt besvarade 188 respondenter enkäten. Bearbetning av data gjordes med hjälp av IBM SPSS Statistics 19 samt Microsoft Excel 2007. Signifikansnivå sattes till p≤0,05 Resultat Antalet respondenter som fick fem poäng eller mer på PHQ-9, och därmed skulle vara i behov av en utredning av den psykiska hälsan, var fler hos de troende (n=41) gentemot hos ateisterna (n=23), (p=0,003). Skillnaden i den psykiska hälsan berodde inte på skiftande trosuppfattning utan på faktorer som fysisk aktivitet, hög utbildning, värk, kön och låg inkomst. Slutsats Denna studie visade ingen signifikant skillnad mellan troendes och ateisters psykiska hälsa efter kontroll för confounders. Studien visade att fysisk aktivitet, hög utbildning, värk, kön och inkomst predicerar den psykiska hälsan. / Abstract Aim The aim of this study was to shed light on any possible differences in perceived mental health in two groups with different religious belief. The study wanted to examine whether religious belief influenced the answers given in the Patient Health Questionnaire, PHQ-9, and if it covariated with the influence of physical activity. What is the prevalence of depression in the studied groups? In what way does belief in a higher power covariate with the perceived mental health in the two studied groups? What is the correlation between religious belief and mental health in relation to the one between physical activity and mental health? Method This study is a cross-sectional study performed using questionnaires to study the covariation between religiousness and perceived mental health in two groups of believers and atheists. The survey included the PHQ-9, a validated questionnaire to detect symptoms of depression. 52 christian parishes in Stockholm county were contacted by e-mail of which 4 was visited. In addition one organization which takes a stand for secular humanism and one organization that aims to promote public education on scientific methods and is independent in religious matters, this to get respondents with diverse beliefs. To extend the respondent group a web-questionnaire was used in addition to the original paper version. In total 188 respondents answered the questionnaire. Data was processed in IBM SPSS Statistics 19 and Microsoft Excel 2007. The level of significance was set to p≤0,05 Results The number of respondents who received five points or more on the PHQ-9, and thus would be in need of an investigation of their mental health, was greater in the group of believers (n=41) in relation to the group of atheists (n=23), (p=0,003). The difference in mental health was not due to difference in belief but due to factors such as physical activity, high education, pain, sex and low-income. Conclusions This study showed no significant difference in the mental health between believers and atheists after controlling for confounders. The study showed that physical activity, high education, pain, sex and low-income predicts the mental health.

<p>Despite recent evidence that infants under one year of age have implicit understanding of theory of mind, three-year-old children repeatedly fail in traditional false belief tasks. A serious of 4 studies investigated two possible sources of errors. First, children's comprehension of theory of mind questions was tested in an elicited imitation task. Second, their understanding of mental events was measured using anticipatory eye movements in non-verbal tasks. Results showed that young children's performance in verbal false belief tasks is limited by their understanding of linguistic representations of beliefs and their ability to monitor mental states in real-time. This implies the limitations of young children in keeping track of complex social events in real time and in understanding language conventions in real time.</p> / Dissertation

This is a case study to take the Top Management Team (TMT), as the main part; moreover, the point of view in the study is to apply ¡§Resource-Building Mechanism¡¨ to explore multicultural companies how effectively building resource on their practical operation in the enterprises. Gradually, the operation leads the Group into a competitive advantage with sustainable development. The secret is not in the esoteric management theories, but in the tangible and intangible resources to integrate the unity capabilities of Knowledge, Belief, and Action. By the methods of questionnaire survey and in-depth interview on the case study of the TMT in the K Company - one of the largest instant noodle food group in the world, this research aims to understand how the Belief strongly affects TMT in common interactions between CEO and TMT in the company. In addition, the research tries to realize how they integrate the idea in the process of organizational change and jointly establish the same faith and trust for the shared vision. Based on result of the research, a key factor to comprehend the maintaining growth of high-performance and competitive advantage which makes opponents hard to imitate and surpass is the tight coherence between the CEO of the company and the Top Management Team. By resolution and perseverance practice of organizational belief, it leads to a unique true essence in the strategic business actions and management. The research proposes a significant value of the unity capabilities of Knowledge, Belief, and Action for the company and provides a practicable way for future research.

Health risk behaviors are responsible for the majority of morbidity and mortality among adolescents. Researchers have identified three sources of risk-taking in adolescents – dispositional, ecological and biological. The Bioecological Model incorporates these three sources of risk-taking, however it lacks explanatory power. For this reason, this thesis focused on explaining risk perception of health risk behaviors (smoking cigarette, alcohol and marijuana use), and health risk behaviors by integrating the Bioecological Model with a more specific Health Belief Model. The relationship between risk perception and health risk behavior was also investigated as a first step in understanding adolescent decision-making using the Health Belief Model. Adolescents from a suburban Indiana area were asked to complete the Adolescent Health Risk Behavior Survey which assessed egocentrism, self-esteem, social norms, risk perceptions, and the incidence and prevalence of health endangering behaviors. Hierarchical linear regression was used to determine the ability of the systems in the Bioecological Model and their specific variables to explain risk perception of health risk behaviors. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to determine the ability of the systems in the Bioecological Model and their specific variables to explain health risk behaviors and to moderate the relationships between risk perception and health risk behaviors. Based on the results, it was confirmed that the Bioecological Model is important in understanding adolescent’s risk perception of health risk behaviors, and their self-reported health risk behaviors. It is also important in understanding the relationship between risk perception and health risk behaviors. Adolescent Variables, Microsystem, and Mesosystem were significant in predicting adolescent risk perception of all health risk behaviors examined, and self-reported smoking cigarette behavior and marijuana use. Adolescent variables and Microsystem were the only systems to predict adolescent self-reported alcohol use. The relationship between risk perception and reported smoking cigarette behavior was moderated by Adolescent Variables, Microsystem and Mesosystem, however for alcohol use the path was moderated by Adolescent Variables and for marijuana use the path was moderated by the Mesosytem. Results of this thesis imply the importance of considering the contribution of Bioecological Model variables when implementing prevention intervention programs specific to adolescent health risk behaviors.

Factors Influencing Corporate Social Responsibility Behavior: Test of An Integrated Stakeholder Model Abstract Lots of serious ethics crises and the violations of corporate social responsibility happened in domestic business community in recent years. These serious cases emerged in business not only have affected different parties¡¦ rights, but also caught the close attention from the public. Bunches of dangerous events and issues happened in the perspective of ethics crises also attracted the researcher¡¦s motive. This research, based on the viewpoint of the interested party ¡V the stakeholder, aims at understanding the development of CSR in Taiwan and building the research context. On the other hand, this study reviews the domestic and international literatures related to CSR in order to explore the whole concept of CSR development, the development stages, comprehensive theories in discussion of CSR, and finally to define relative stakeholders and the levels of CSR, while enterprise managers fulfilling their CSR. This research has applied 300 valid questionnaires from the top 1000 manufacturing industries in Taiwan to do the empirical investigation and statistical analysis. Meanwhile, in order to increase the validity, the study has searched 2,103 available news through the access of media¡¦s database (http://udn.com) to understand the CSR behaviors of top 1000 Taiwanese manufacturing industries, and further to do cross analysis with empirical investigation for the purpose of understanding their relationship. Therefore, as the research findings show, while enterprise managers carry out the CSR behavior intention of different interested parties, the factor of their behavior intention shows apparently positive effect on the perspectives of ¡§the community¡¨ and ¡§the shareholder¡¨; conversely, the factor doesn¡¦t show significant effect on ¡§the customer¡¨ and ¡§the employees¡¨. In addition, according to attitude belief of different CSR levels, there is the apparently positive effect between ¡§heteronomy responsibility¡¨ and ¡§autonomy responsibility¡¨. The empirical results also demonstrate the positive correlation between CSR behaviors presented in the past time and those presented in the future. In terms of cross analysis between CSR empirical model and the characteristics of CSR media reports, except ¡§community responsibility¡¨, higher intention and higher behavior presenters have better performances while facing positive and self-discipline news. Finally, the study suggests that it is necessary to enhance the attitude and belief of ¡§community responsibility¡¨, as well as of ¡§shareholder responsibility¡¨ in order to improve the fulfillment of CSR.

As an enterprise start to grow up, it comes along with the bottleneck and limitation of growth. In the meantime, this enterprise will activate a series of activities of organizational development for creating a better performance. In the past studies, researchers focused most of time on the relationship among organizational structures, those activities and organizational performance. They tried to find out how the organizational change created the marvelous performance, but just missed an important factor that made this happen is the believes of the leader. We believe that leader¡¦s believies will influence the organizational structure and then decide the performance of this organization. Our research focused on how believes affect the organization, and took GE company for example. We tried to explore the changes of organizational structure and organizational performance. Furthermore, to find out the key soft variables that is behind the back of organization¡¦s excellent performance. Our research adopted System Dynamics as the research method. We collected the information about the GE company, analyzed them and constructed the GE¡¦s system dynamics model. According to this model, we do the sumilation, test and analysis. Finally, we proposed our research conclusion.

An explanatory mixed method research design was utilized to examine the elementary teachers&rsquo / (classroom teachers) perceptions towards ICT integration in education and its effect on their teaching. In the first phase instruments were translated into Turkish and pilot tested with 282 classroom teachers. For the main study, the survey was distributed to classroom teachers in 90 schools in Ankara. With a 45% percent return rate, 1055 surveys from elementary teachers were used in the quantitative data analysis part. Two simultaneous multiple regression analysis were conducted and the results showed that teachers&rsquo / perceptions towards ICT integration in education and its effect on their teaching can be explained by different sets of variables where the most important one is teachers&rsquo / pedagogical beliefs. In the third phase, teachers were clustered under constructivist and behaviorist groups and ten teachers from each group were interviewed to reveal the differences on teachers&rsquo / ICT integration perception in relation to education and their teaching. The research result presented that elementary teacher pedagogical beliefs affect their perceptions towards ICT integration in teaching and learning process. Qualitative data analysis presented differences between constructivist and behaviorist group participants in relation to ICT integration in teaching and learning process.