Non-government organisations (NGOs) are special kinds of organisation which focus on serving the common good in society. Historically they have helped the needy, disadvantaged and vulnerable people and communities. The view that society had of NGOs has changed: they are no longer seen as charity and welfare organisations but as valuable partners in the context of sustainable development. Although many different non-profit organisations exist, all strive towards development, betterment and upliftment. These organisations are dependent on funding, yet need to be sustainable, which creates the challenge of obtaining funding in order to render services. This research explored the current funding context, using Bramley’s Children’s Home as a case study, in order to identify the challenges experienced by NGOs in obtaining adequate funding. It also investigated the perceptions of management regarding the impact of these challenges on the sustainability of the organisation. The research findings indicate that funding is seen as a common dilemma in this sector, and that there is a lack of sufficient long-term investment from donors. The effect is that NGOs struggle to implement much-needed services and therefore improving services in order to address the constantly changing needs of people remains a challenge. Emphasis has been placed on the importance of collaboration between the NGO sector, the business sector and government. By establishing partnerships each sector can benefit when contributing to sustainable development and can possibly also address the challenge of funding within NGOs. This research strives to showcase the important role of NGOs within the context of sustainable development, with specific reference to Bramley Children’s Home in addressing the social problem of caring for and protecting vulnerable children. / Master of Development and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Non-government organisations (NGOs) are special kinds of organisation which focus on serving the common good in society. Historically they have helped the needy, disadvantaged and vulnerable people and communities. The view that society had of NGOs has changed: they are no longer seen as charity and welfare organisations but as valuable partners in the context of sustainable development. Although many different non-profit organisations exist, all strive towards development, betterment and upliftment. These organisations are dependent on funding, yet need to be sustainable, which creates the challenge of obtaining funding in order to render services. This research explored the current funding context, using Bramley’s Children’s Home as a case study, in order to identify the challenges experienced by NGOs in obtaining adequate funding. It also investigated the perceptions of management regarding the impact of these challenges on the sustainability of the organisation. The research findings indicate that funding is seen as a common dilemma in this sector, and that there is a lack of sufficient long-term investment from donors. The effect is that NGOs struggle to implement much-needed services and therefore improving services in order to address the constantly changing needs of people remains a challenge. Emphasis has been placed on the importance of collaboration between the NGO sector, the business sector and government. By establishing partnerships each sector can benefit when contributing to sustainable development and can possibly also address the challenge of funding within NGOs. This research strives to showcase the important role of NGOs within the context of sustainable development, with specific reference to Bramley Children’s Home in addressing the social problem of caring for and protecting vulnerable children. / Master of Development and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Radiation safety is the biggest concern of the nuclear industry, and co-robots are a crucial component to insuring that safety. Currently, radiation mapping data is typically gathered using hand held detectors or other detection systems requiring constant human interaction. This results in direct exposure to radiation of the individual performing the survey. Co-robots can coordinate computer algorithms and human input to determine the most efficient and accurate methods of surveying these same regions while eliminating health hazards. These surveying methods can then be adapted for multiple uses in the industry including nonproliferation, maintenance, and accident response scenarios. This work describes the process by which two vehicles were modified to detect radiation with minimal human interaction. An algorithm was developed to control the robot and to navigate the area of interest while ensuring that all sources are found. A compact detector system was used to keep the vehicles as small and light as possible. The vehicles were constructed to satisfy the requirements of the detector system and relay the necessary information back to the control station. The process, which is nearly fully autonomous, can map an area of interest and proceed to characterize the radiation materials that are found using neutron and gamma spectroscopy. The vehicles were tested in several scenarios which included obstacles, multiple sources, and shielding of the sources to determine the practicality of these co-robots. The evaluation of these co-robots was critical, as the future of radiation safety lies in the research and construction of small autonomous radiation detection systems to minimize the risk that radiation exposure poses to humans.

This dissertation examines the relationship exposure to forensic crime television has on a potential juror’s willingness to find a suspect guilty when presented with a case involving only circumstantial and eyewitness evidence. This study also looks at a potential juror’s expectation of forensic evidence being presented at trial based upon this exposure. To better understand these relationships, the study utilized social constructionism as the theoretical framework. To collect data, an original survey instrument that included either a violent or non-violent crime scenario was developed. Reponses from 1572 undergraduate students were analyzed to better understand what might influence their willingness to find a suspect guilty and their expectation of forensic evidence being presented at trial. The results indicate that viewership of forensic crime television does not significantly influence a potential juror’s decision to find a suspect guilty or not guilty. After controlling for viewership, it appears that the number of justice-based classes completed by the potential juror does influence their decision to find the suspect guilty. The analysis also shows that gender and the type of scenario (violent versus non-violent) may influence a juror’s willingness to find a suspect guilty. It does not appear that there is a correlation between a juror’s willingness to find a suspect guilty and their expectation of forensic evidence being presented at trial.

The media exaggerates the capabilities of crime laboratories while it publicizes the wrongdoings of individual forensic scientists. Such portrayals skew the perspectives of jurors and hinder expert witness testimony. Complicating the problem are separate, but related, phenomena that influence how forensic laboratories conduct casework. These phenomena are Cole and Dioso-Villa's conceptualization of the unrealistic expectations of forensic science created by fictional television, known as the CSI Effect; the Daubert ruling on the admissibility of expert testimony; and some federal policy changes as a result of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report that impacted requirements for the daily operation of crime laboratories. This study sought to better understand which among these phenomena had the greatest effect on policy development and implementation related to crime lab operations. Quantitative survey data were collected through an online survey from a nationwide sample (n = 124) of forensic practitioners belonging to the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. The data were analyzed using ANOVA to evaluate the influence of each factor (CSI Effect, Daubert ruling, and NAS report) on policy creation within crime laboratories. Results indicate that the CSI Effect has a statistically greater impact on policy creation than did either the Daubert ruling or the NAS report (p <.001). The implications for positive social change stemming from this study include recommendations to lawmakers and administrators to reevaluate performance objectives related to operations and increase awareness of the CSI Effect in order to promote scientifically sound results and increase the effectiveness of testimony at trial.

沒有中文摘要 Abstract List of Tables List of Figures Chapter Ⅰ Introduction 1 Section 1. Research Background and Motivation 1 Section 2. Research Questions 5 Section 3. Thesis Structure 7 Chapter Ⅱ Literature Review 8 Section 1. Customer Satisfaction 8 Section 2. Customer Expectation 13 Section 3. Customer Perceived Quality/Performance 15 Section 4. Customer Perceived Value 16 Section 5. Importance of Customer Satisfaction 17 Section 6. Measurements of Customer Satisfaction 19 CSI Model 19 SERVQUAL 21 Other Measurements of Customer Satisfaction 23 Chapter Ⅲ Research Hypotheses and Methodology 25 Section 1. Research Hypotheses 25 1.1 Research Model 25 1.2 Research Hypotheses 26 1.3 Research Variables 27 Section 2. LISREL Model 31 2.1 Introduction of LISREL 31 2.2 Structural Equation Model and Measurement Model 33 Section 3. Research Design 42 3.1 Research Target and Sampling 42 3.2 Questionnaire Design 42 Section 4. Comparison of Questionnaires 44 4.1 Design of Sales Questionnaire 44 4.2 Data Analysis of Sales Questionnaire 45 4.3 Design of Service Questionnaire 46 4.4 Data Analysis of Sales Questionnaire 47 4.5 Comparison of Lexus and CSI Questionnaires 47 Section 5. Limitations of Research 49 Chapter Ⅳ Data Analysis and Results 50 Section 1. Data Handling 50 1.1 Handling of Sample 50 1.2 Handling of Customer Loyalty Data 50 1.3 Handling of Customer Complaints Data 51 1.4 Handling of Perceived Value Data 51 Section 2. Analyzed Result 53 2.1 Model Estimation 53 2.2. Squared Multiple Correlation 55 2.3 Parameter Estimation 56 Section 3. Hypotheses Test 60 Section 4. Meaning of Data Result 65 Section 5. Summary of Customer Opinions 67 Chapter Ⅴ Conclusion and Recommendations 69 Section 1. Research Conclusion 69 Section 2. Recent Customer Service Effort of Lexus 72 Section 3. Recommendations 74 List of References 76 List of Appendices 79 Appendix 1. CSI Lexus Questionnaire (English) 79 Appendix 2. CSI Lexus Questionnaire (Chinese) 84 Appendix 3. Lexus Original Sales Questionnaire (English) 88 Appendix 4. Lexus Original Sales Questionnaire (Chinese) 93 Appendix 5. Lexus Original Service Questionnaire (English) 97 Appendix 6. Lexus Original Service Questionnaire (Chinese) 102 Appendix 7. Samples of Lexus Questionnaire Data Analysis Result 106 / As the numbers of manufacturers and providers strive to out-do each other, Taiwan is increasingly becoming a competitive market. As the market becomes competitive, traditional norm was for firms to compete on the basis of price. However, firms are realizing that competing on price does not only decrease their profit margins, but it is also very costly to continuously acquire new customers. Therefore, various firms have started to attach more and more importance on improving customer satisfaction to retain current customers. Lexus is one of those firms, which is striving to increase customer satisfaction level as a way to compete in a very competitive market in Taiwan. With the precious chance to cooperate with Taiwan Lexus, the main purpose of this research is to explore the Taiwanese Lexus system of customer satisfaction by understanding the Customer Satisfaction Index model introduced by Fornell et al. in 1996. From the research result by employing LISREL model, it was found that for Taiwanese Lexus owners, perceived quality is the only variable directly and positively influencing overall customer satisfaction, although through perceived quality, customer expectation indirectly influences overall customer satisfaction. Further, unlike CSI model, perceived value does not exist as one of the antecedents of overall customer satisfaction. Another important founding was that customer complaints have positive influence on customer loyalty. In the final section, based on the research results of LISREL model, some recommendations are offered. Mainly, improve perceived quality, for it is the most effective way of increasing the level of customer satisfaction. In addition, based on the findings from the customer opinion section of the questionnaire, improve the product quality of Lexus’ GS model, lower the costs of repair and parts, improve service reliability, attitude of service personnel, and quality of maintenance and repair. Finally, from the discussion with Taiwan Lexus, it was revealed that the importance of customer satisfaction and its concept are not fully accepted by the Lexus dealers. Therefore, along with the effort of improving customer satisfaction of Lexus owners, educating and getting consensus of the dealers are very important for the success of customer service system at Taiwan Lexus.

<p>Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka vilken funktion och betydelse kroppen har i första säsongen av CSI: Crime Scenen Investigation (CBS, 2000-). Detta eftersom det kan ge en ökad förståelse för de föreställningar som omgärdar kroppen i vår kultur idag. Författaren gör närläsningar av analysobjektet som relateras till relevant litteratur, såväl som tidigare praktiker och representationer av kroppslighet.</p><p>I den första delen undersöker författaren vilken roll kroppen spelar i utredningsarbetets sökande efter en säker sanning. Författaren konstaterar att utredarna använder sig av en kroppslig utredningsteknik och att kroppen dessutom ses som en privilegierad form av bevis, vars tillgänglighet ökar med hjälp av obduktionsförfarandet och olika teknologiska hjälpmedel. Vidare ifrågasätter författaren hur långsökta slutsatser om individen dras från kroppen. Till sist föreslår författaren att tron på säker kunskap känns betryggande i en tid då kroppen ses som föränderlig och där begrepp som verklighet och sanning blivit flytande.</p><p>I den andra delen undersöker författaren hotfull kroppslighet och hur dessa hot eventuellt neutraliseras. Författaren drar här fyra huvudsakliga slutsatser:</p><p>1. Den uppstyckade kroppen är skrämmande eftersom den uppfattas som gränsöverskridande och utredarnas ihopsamlande av kroppsdelar är ett sätt att återskapa de ursprungliga gränserna.</p><p>2. Döden är ytterligare en gränsöverskridande praktik som dessutom innebär kroppens totala förintelse, utredningsarbetet är en kamp mot döden som strävar efter att återupprätta livet.</p><p>3. Utredarnas förhållande till den döda kroppen är synnerligen komplext eftersom de bör förbli objektiva, men samtidigt inte får riskera att objektifiera den döda kroppen.</p><p>4. Själva filmmediet kan ses som ett hot mot kroppen genom sitt fragmenterande bildspråk, men också som ett försvar mot döden genom förmågan att skildra rörelse.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: The Construction of Science in Television Crime Shows – a Critical Discourse Analysis of CSI and Bones (Om konstruktionen av vetenskap i kriminalserier på TV – en kritisk diskursanalys av CSI och Bones).</p><p>Number of pages: 45 (50 including enclosures)</p><p>Author: Lovisa Sandberg</p><p>Tutor: Amelie Hössjer</p><p>Course: Media and Communications Studies D</p><p>Period: Spring 2006</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The aim was to explore the construction of science in the television crime shows CSI and Bones.</p><p>Material/Method: The method used is critical discourse analysis based on the thoughts of Norman Fairclough. The analysis includes three episodes of CSI and three episodes of Bones,broadcast from between the 10th and 25th of April, in 2006 on Swedish television.</p><p>Main results: The scientists in CSI and Bones are constructed as rational and calm; they are mainly concerned with finding the truth. On the surface, the truth is objective and reachable, although, in these TV-shows all observations are theory laden.</p><p>Keywords: CSI, Bones, crime shows, television, science, discourse analysis.</p>

Wireless communication links with multiple antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver sides, so-called multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO)systems, are attracting much interest since they can significantly increase the capacity of band-limited wireless channels to meet the requirements of the future high data rate wireless communications. The treatment of channel state information (CSI) is critical in the design of MIMO systems. Accurate CSI at the transmitter is often not possible or may require high feedback rates, especially in multi-user scenarios. Herein, we consider the robust design of linear transceivers with imperfect CSI either at the transmitter or at both sides of the link. The framework considers the design problem where the imperfect CSI consists of a channel mean and an channel covariance matrix or, equivalently, a channel estimate and an estimation error covariance matrix. For single-user systems, the proposed robust transceiver designs are based on a general cost function of the average mean square errors. Under different CSI conditions, our robust designs exhibit a similar structure to the transceiver designs for perfect CSI, but with a different equivalent channel and/or noise covariance matrix. Utilizing majorization theory, the robust linear transceiver design can be readily solved by convex optimization approaches in practice. For multi-user systems, we consider both the communication link from the users to the access point (up-link) as well as the reverse link from the access point to the users (down-link). For the up-link channel, it is possible to optimally design robust linear transceivers minimizing the average sum mean square errors of all the data streams for the users. Our robust linear transceivers are designed either by reformulating the optimization problem as a semidefinite program or by extending the design of a single-user system in an iterative manner. Under certain channel conditions, we show that the up-link design problem can even be solved partly in a distributed fashion. For the down-link channel, a system with one receive antenna per user is considered. A robust system design is obtained by reducing the feedback load from all users to allow only a few selected users to feed back accurate CSI to the access point. We study the properties of four typical user selection algorithms in conjunction with beamforming that guarantee certain signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) requirements under transmit power minimization. Specifically, we show that norm-based user selection is asymptotically optimal in the number of transmitter antennas and close-to-optimal in the number of users. Rooted in the practical significance of this result, a simpler down-link system design with reduced feedback requirements is proposed. / QC 20100922

Abstract Title: The Construction of Science in Television Crime Shows – a Critical Discourse Analysis of CSI and Bones (Om konstruktionen av vetenskap i kriminalserier på TV – en kritisk diskursanalys av CSI och Bones). Number of pages: 45 (50 including enclosures) Author: Lovisa Sandberg Tutor: Amelie Hössjer Course: Media and Communications Studies D Period: Spring 2006 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Purpose/Aim: The aim was to explore the construction of science in the television crime shows CSI and Bones. Material/Method: The method used is critical discourse analysis based on the thoughts of Norman Fairclough. The analysis includes three episodes of CSI and three episodes of Bones,broadcast from between the 10th and 25th of April, in 2006 on Swedish television. Main results: The scientists in CSI and Bones are constructed as rational and calm; they are mainly concerned with finding the truth. On the surface, the truth is objective and reachable, although, in these TV-shows all observations are theory laden. Keywords: CSI, Bones, crime shows, television, science, discourse analysis.