This study examined, within a multiple baseline design, the development of generalized imitative repertoires and the occurrence of contingency testing in children with autism. Generalized imitation refers to an imitative response class maintained by a conditioned reinforcer: similarity. In the case of imitation, a response class is established by reinforcement of sufficient exemplars of different imitations; the results is a general repertoire of imitating novel responses on their first presentation. Generalized imitation was facilitated through reinforcement procedures involving shaping and fading. Multiple experimenters and multiple settings have been involved to promote the generalization of imitation. Contingency testing, which has been noticed to naturally occur in typically developing children when imitated, was targeted in the examined treatment, by employing a procedure where the experimenter imitated the child. It was hypothesized that the imitation training leads to generalized imitation and that the imitation of the child by the therapist leads to the occurrence of contingency testing. The results of the study show that the shaping and reinforcement procedures determined an increase in participants' trained imitative responding but no corresponding increase in novel, probed imitative responses. The data indicate the emergence of an imitative repertoire in need of further training. Additionally, the results suggest that generalization of skills across therapists and settings has occurred. Imitation of the child by the therapist had been employed for a very small number of sessions. Notwithstanding, the results yielded an increase in the contingency testing behaviors for both participants.

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder characterized by social, behavioral, and communicative deficits. Although there is no known cure for autism, there are many research-based interventions that aid in strengthening such deficits, especially those associated with failures of stimulus control One way to address such failures is to provide additional stimuli that enhance or override information provided by naturally occurring stimuli. Contingency maps are one such example. This study uses an observing response (i.e., hand-raising) to allow the subjects to request contingency maps. The purpose of this study is to identify if contingency maps function as reinforcers and if requests for information can be acquired using an observing-response paradigm. Major findings of the present study indicate that requests for information can be acquired and maintained by access to CMs.

Emergency medical teams operate under unusual circumstances. They assemble for a singular, temporary purpose, potentially change in size and composition, and their performance can influence whether a patient lives or dies. Although leadership is a critical component to team success, it is rarely investigated in the context of emergency medical teams. This study sought to examine the relationship between directive leadership behaviors and team performance outcomes. It was hypothesized that directive leadership would be particularly effective for emergency medical teams. In addition, a contingency model was proposed. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the effectiveness of directive leadership is contingent upon the complexity of the situation and the experience level of the team such that directive leadership is more effective when teams are inexperienced and the situation is complex. Neonatal resuscitation teams served as the emergency medical teams in this study. The proposed relationships were tested using observations from high-fidelity, neonatal resuscitation team training simulations. Hypotheses were not supported. Limitations and suggestions for future research for the development of leadership training curriculum are discussed.

Social knowledge about food was investigated from a social contingency perspective (Guerin, 1994, 1998, 2004), a functional linguistic approach that considers language use having functions both to establish 'facts' in order to control listeners, and to maintain social relationships with words. In Study 1, whether people shared knowledge about food or not was examined. One hundred and fourteen New Zealand and 23 Japanese participants were asked to answer free format questionnaires asking the reasons they and others eat or do not eat particular food items. Those answers were categorised into 8 categories and 30 sub-categories of the knowledge about foods by qualitative content analysis. The results of a cluster analysis of those categories showed that participants used the categories homogeneously although there were some differences between New Zealand and Japanese participants, and that the participants selectively used different types of knowledge according to food items especially when explaining why people do or do not eat some foods. In Study 2, rhetorical features about foods were investigated: (1) numerical quantification rhetoric; (2) narrative use rhetoric; and (3) enumeration rhetoric. Factual statements from a corpus of 118 New Zealand TV commercials and 249 Japanese TV commercials were coded by the categories generated in Study 1. The results showed that the categories of factual statements were selectively used on TV commercials depending on the food types, and related closely to the results of Study 1. The rhetorical strategies appeared in commercials according to the categories of factual statements. When more than one factual statement was presented in a commercial, the relations of the factual statements were usually of a conjunctive form such as quotfact A however fact Bquot or quotfact A moreover fact Bquot, or else the factual statements were presented independently rather than the one statement logically warranting the other. These results suggest that those rhetoric uses and the arrangements of the factual statements were selectively used according to the effectiveness against counter arguments using shared knowledge. Study 3 and Study 4 analysed the functions of shared knowledge about food for maintaining social relationships through investigating the cases in which knowledge about foods presented as the form of 'collaborative talk', which occurs when one speaker completes the preceding saying by another speaker. In Study 3, the collaborative talk as sentence completions of knowledge about food was qualitatively analysed from conversations of 30 to 45 minutes produced by four groups consisting of four or five Japanese participants who were friends. From a social contingency view, the analysis focused on the following conversational properties: (1) who the listener was; (2) the degree of sharing of the information between the speakers; (3) the degree of sharing of the information between the 2nd speaker and the listener; and (4) the disagreement between the 2nd speaker and the listener. The results of Study 3 suggested some possible functions of sentence completions of knowledge about food: (1) the function when the first speaker is the listener may be enhancement of the relationship between the first and the second speakers through showing the second speaker's attention and understanding to the first speaker's utterance, because those sentence completions were often followed by the affirmation or negation by the first speaker; (2) when a third person is the listener, and the first and the second speaker refuted the third person using sentence completion, the function seems to be just establishing 'facts'; and (3) in the cases of 'assisted explaining' (Lerner Takagi, 1999) , the function may be not only establishing 'facts' but also enhancement the relationship between the listener and the speakers, because the constructed 'facts' may work as a kind of conversational 'gift'. In Study 4, five Japanese groups consisting of four participants who were friends were asked to talk about four topics about foods that all participants either agreed or disagreed ('All agree' condition) and four food topics for which there was disagreement about it between participants ('Some agree' condition). When the listeners could not be identified, and the second speakers did not used the utterance-final element such as 'yo ne' that is regarded as having a function of showing agreement between the speakers, the participants used sentence completions more frequently in 'All agree' conditions. The results suggested that the function of this type of sentence completion is not merely establishing 'facts' but also enhancing the relationship between the speakers through showing agreement about the relevant things to the topic. In conclusion, the results of the present studies suggest some possible social contingencies involved both when people get knowledge about food and when they use it.

Agency theory proposes that the role of the board of directors is to control management (Fama & Jensen 1983). A structurally independent board, one with a high percentage of non-executive directors and a chairperson who is not the CEO, has been used as a proxy for the control role. Therefore, agency theory predicts a positive relationship between independent board structure and firm performance. These predictions have not been confirmed by meta-analytic reviews (Dalton, Daily, Ellstrand, & Johnson 1998; Rhoades, Rechner, & Sundaramurthy 2000). This thesis applies structural contingency theory to provide an alternative explanation for the relationship between board structure and firm performance. Structural contingency theory (Donaldson 2001) proposes that the relationship between an organization???s structure and its performance is moderated by contingencies. In this study the contingency is the salience of the board???s control role. I argue that structural independence of the board has a beneficial effect on performance only if it is in fit with control salience. For example, a firm with an independently structured board that gives high prominence to the control role will perform well. On the other hand, another firm with a less independently structured board that does not see its main role as controlling management will also prosper. Survey data were analyzed to measure the control salience for 98 Australian listed companies. Archival data provided measures of board structure and firm performance. Consistent with the meta-analytic reviews, there was no association between independent board structure and firm performance. There was some evidence that high control salience resulted in high performance, but this effect was evident chiefly when performance was measured by total shareholder returns. This may indicate that the share market was responding to the symbolism of high control salience. In contrast to the symbolic main effect of control salience, the fit between the control salience and the independent structure of the board caused increased return on equity. This reflects the board???s objective effect on profit when its structure is in fit with control salience.

<p>Med anledning av den finansiella kris som råder och den påverkan den haft på börs- och räntekurser världen över ansåg vi det intressant och samtidigt relevant att undersöka hur försäkringsbolag påverkas av denna situation. Vi valde försäkringsbolag då de hanterar både sina egna och sina kunders risker samt förvaltar stora portföljer. Den nuvarande ekonomiska situationen var bakgrunden till att studien genomfördes. Uppsatsen syftade till att undersöka om, och i så fall hur, försäkringsbolag anpassar och förändrar sin riskhanteringsprocess och organisation under den finansiella kris som råder. En kvalitativ metod tillämpades, där intervjuer med tre inom Sverige väletablerade försäkringsbolag genomfördes. Genom de frågor som ställdes ville vi uppnå en djupare förståelse för förändring och anpassning under kris. Under intervjuerna fann vi att alla de tillfrågade bolagen hade i förväg väl fungerade och väl utarbetade processer för hur risker hanteras. Därmed behöver de inte förändra sina rutiner och sin organisation för att anpassa verksamheten till en osäker situation i samhället.</p>

<p>Syftet med vår uppsats är att ur ett sociologiskt samhällsteoretiskt perspektiv, ge både oss själva och läsaren en ökad förståelse för och synliggöra flickor från vissa etniska grupper och deras intim- och familjerelationer i Sverige. För att kunna förstå flickornas eventuella problem och konflikter i familjen tar vi hjälp av Niklas Luhmanns systemteori och hans analys av intima relationer och familjen i det moderna samhället. De frågeställningar som besvaras är:</p><p>• Vilka skillnader mellan det förmoderna och moderna samhällets syn på intim- och familjerelationer ställs flickorna i vårt material inför?</p><p>• Hur kan dessa skillnader tolkas och förstås utifrån Luhmanns systemteoretiska analys av den moderna familjen?</p><p>Vår studie är ett teoretiskt arbete och grundar sig på litteraturstudier. För att kunna besvara våra frågeställningar har vi inspirerats av och löst anknutit oss till en abduktiv metod. Undersökningen tar sin utgångspunkt dels i en nyligen gjord studie av Åsa Andersson, Inte samma lika (2003), och dels i den internationellt erkände sociologen Niklas Luhmanns systemteori och hans analys av intima relationer och familjen.</p><p>För att kunna få en sociologisk samhällsteoretisk förståelse för och kunna placera in familjen i det moderna samhällets kontext presenterar vi de delar av Luhmanns teori och begreppsapparat som vi ansåg relevanta för ämnet. Det gör vi för att kunna förstå hur familjen fungerar i det moderna samhället.</p><p>Sammanfattningsvis kan vi konstatera att de skillnader i synen på intim- och familjerelationer som flickorna har att förhålla sig till finns i såväl den offentliga som den privata sfären. Skillnaderna är flera under respektive sfär men de mest framträdande skillnaderna handlar om moral och förnuft där familjen och den egna etniska gruppen använder mekanismer som skam och skuld för att reducera en ökad kontingens och komplexitet som råder i det moderna samhället. Utifrån flickornas beskrivningar kan vi förstå att deras förväntningar i hög grad skiljer sig från föräldrarnas såväl i valet av äktenskapspartner, hemarbete, mer frihet och ökad jämställdhet i form av utbildning och ekonomiskt oberoende. Utifrån en systemteoretisk synvinkel kan vi även se skillnader på såväl generell som specifik nivå, förändringar av intima relationer kan alltså kopplas till samhällsutvecklingen och dess semantiska koder knutna till familjen som system.</p>

This thesis consists of four papers that deal with several aspects of the measurement of model fit for categorical data. In all papers, special attention is paid to situations with sparse data. The first paper concerns the computational burden of calculating Pearson's goodness-of-fit statistic for situations where many response patterns have observed frequencies that equal zero. A simple solution is presented that allows for the computation of the total value of Pearson's goodness-of-fit statistic when the expected frequencies of response patterns with observed frequencies of zero are unknown. In the second paper, a new fit statistic is presented that is a modification of Pearson's statistic but that is not adversely affected by response patterns with very small expected frequencies. It is shown that the new statistic is asymptotically equivalent to Pearson's goodness-of-fit statistic and hence, asymptotically chi-square distributed. In the third paper, comprehensive simulation studies are conducted that compare seven asymptotically equivalent fit statistics, including the new statistic. Situations that are considered concern both multinomial sampling and factor analysis. Tests for the goodness-of-fit are conducted by means of the asymptotic and the bootstrap approach both under the null hypothesis and when there is a certain degree of misfit in the data. Results indicate that recommendations on the use of a fit statistic can be dependent on the investigated situation and on the purpose of the model test. Power varies substantially between the fit statistics and the cause of the misfit of the model. Findings indicate further that the new statistic proposed in this thesis shows rather stable results and compared to the other fit statistics, no disadvantageous characteristics of the fit statistic are found. Finally, in the fourth paper, the potential necessity of determining the goodness-of-fit by two sided model testing is adverted. A simulation study is conducted that investigates differences between the one sided and the two sided approach of model testing. Situations are identified for which two sided model testing has advantages over the one sided approach.

The main objective of this study is to make a comprehensive analysis of the question &ldquo / Why is there something rather than nothing?&rdquo / , which is one of the major questions of metaphysics, and to find a plausible answer at the end, if it is possible. To begin this analysis, a clarification of what we understand by this question is needed first. For the clarification, a definition of &lsquo / nothingness&rsquo / will be sought. Afterwards, the motivation for us to ask this question, the significance of it, and the content of it will be investigated. This investigation will help us concentrate on and discuss within the framework of causation and necessity our understanding of &ldquo / contingent beings&rdquo / and &ldquo / nothingness&rdquo / . Two main approaches sought to answer this question till now are by theists and physicists. Those approaches will be discussed and compared. And at the end of the comparative analysis of these two approaches, a metaphysical approach which will be a layer of them will be sought.

Med anledning av den finansiella kris som råder och den påverkan den haft på börs- och räntekurser världen över ansåg vi det intressant och samtidigt relevant att undersöka hur försäkringsbolag påverkas av denna situation. Vi valde försäkringsbolag då de hanterar både sina egna och sina kunders risker samt förvaltar stora portföljer. Den nuvarande ekonomiska situationen var bakgrunden till att studien genomfördes. Uppsatsen syftade till att undersöka om, och i så fall hur, försäkringsbolag anpassar och förändrar sin riskhanteringsprocess och organisation under den finansiella kris som råder. En kvalitativ metod tillämpades, där intervjuer med tre inom Sverige väletablerade försäkringsbolag genomfördes. Genom de frågor som ställdes ville vi uppnå en djupare förståelse för förändring och anpassning under kris. Under intervjuerna fann vi att alla de tillfrågade bolagen hade i förväg väl fungerade och väl utarbetade processer för hur risker hanteras. Därmed behöver de inte förändra sina rutiner och sin organisation för att anpassa verksamheten till en osäker situation i samhället.