The availability of online college and university courses have continued to grow, offering opportunities for education to students that may find attending in a regular classroom difficult, if not impossible. The number of students with disabilities enrolling in online courses is also growing. However, because of the mode of delivery (via computer/internet), blind and low vision college and university students can find it difficult to participate fully in an online course if it is not designed with accessibility in mind. Education is directly related to blind and low vision individuals becoming fully employed and independent. Blind and low vision college and university students who have previously taken an online course and used assistive technology devices to access the computer are aware of the issues of accessibility to online courses. The current study began by asking a group of blind and low-vision students to answer seven open-ended questions regarding their experiences accessing online courses at their college or university. The group responses generated 25 survey items and participants were asked to rate each item. Survey items were evaluated and participants were given the opportunity to re-rate their answers based on the group’s responses. The final results were evaluated and ranked in importance according to participant responses. Results were discussed along with the implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research.

This study focused on two themes which have recurred in education since the 1980's: equity of educational outcomes for all students and reform in mathematics education. The problem addressed in this study concerned the apparent inability of large- scale reforms to meet equity goals. The purpose of the study was to increase understanding of this problem from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The study was influenced by feminist perspectives in the choice of theoretical framework and methodology. Focusing specifically on gender equity, the study was set in the context of a large-scale reform in the USA, Ohio's Statewide Systemic Initiative, Project Discovery.There were three major objectives in this study. First was to synthesise the literature concerning gender equity in mathematics education to produce a definition of the ideal Connected Equitable Mathematics Classroom (CEMC). There were two parts to the literature review: one concerning explanations for observed gender differences in mathematics education, and another concerning initiatives implemented to try to bring about gender equity in mathematics education.The second objective was to use the definition of the ideal CEMC, derived from the literature, to determine the extent to which reform had occurred in mathematics classrooms in Ohio. This was accomplished through the analysis of quantitative data collected from a random sample of teachers and principals across the state, and qualitative data collected from seven case study sites. The third objective was to determine the barriers to and facilitators of the realisation of equity goals in middle-school mathematics classrooms involved in Project Discovery. This was accomplished through a cross-site analysis of data collected at the seven case- study sites, with the analysis framed around the characteristics of the CEMC.The outcomes of the study are ++ / set out in terms of these three objectives, culminating in a discussion of the implications and challenges which the findings of this study pose for researchers, reformers, equity advocates and practitioners.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse international financial integration. Chapter 2 investigates the determinants of international financial integration. Variables including the capital control policy dummy variable, openness to international trade, domestic credit and economic growth are candidates for explaining variation in the degree of international financial integration. Chapter 3 analyses cointegration between the US and several European Union equity markets. Between 1993 and 1998, there is mixed evidence of cointegration ties with the US equity market. Over the period covering the introduction of the euro, most of the European markets did not show any evidence of cointegration with the US market. Granger causality tests reveal significant causality running from the US to the European markets. Chapter 4 estimates time series of market and idiosyncratic volatilities for the firms composing the index DJ Eurostoxx 50 following the volatility decomposition method of Campbell et al. (2001). There was a positive trend in both market and firm-level volatility and average correlation among firms has increased. This contrasts with the US evidence in Campbell et al. (2001) of a strong positive trend in firm-level volatility, no trend in market volatility and a decrease in the average correlation. Results confirm a statistically significant market risk-return trade-off and that firm-level volatility has no predictive power for subsequent market returns. Chapter 5 analyses the link between FDI and economic growth using panel data. FDI has a stronger positive impact on economic growth in countries with higher levels of education attainment, those that are more open to international trade, have better stock market development and lower rates of population growth and levels of risk. Chapter 6 investigates the determinants of the home bias. Results indicate that capital controls and transaction costs are factors driving the home bias of Australian equity portfolio investment. The home bias lessens if the bilateral trade is higher. Australian investors invest a higher share of their portfolio in countries with better institutions and larger market size.

Doctor of Social Work / This doctoral thesis presents the findings of a qualitative research project which examines the impact of university study on a group of twenty female and male mature-age students at the University of Newcastle, Australia, who have entered university via a non-traditional pathway. The students who are the subject of this thesis are in the second to final years of their undergraduate degree programs and have all faced significant hurdles in gaining university entrance and persevering with their studies. The majority have come from lower socio-economic backgrounds with little, if any, family history of higher education and little positive experience of prior study. Postmodern feminist theory has primarily informed this research, using a narrative method to gather the data, analyse the results and present the findings. This thesis describes the experiences of the twenty individuals, derived from their individual narratives. As such, it gives voice to their stories: their triumphs and achievements as well as their struggles. It examines the gender issues that are at work in the shaping of their experiences, including the ways in which gender affected the type and extent of help and support on which they could rely. It highlights the transformative nature of these experiences for each of the students in this cohort, as well as potentially the next generation, and makes some tentative connections between these individual experiences and the experiences of the wider mature-age university student population. The narratives that individuals tell are socially and culturally located. Hence it is likely that the experiences of these twenty students may reflect, at least to some extent, the experiences of other mature-age students within a similar culture. The findings of this research also highlight the important role that higher education institutions can play, not only in widening access to higher education, but also in encouraging and assisting students, from a diverse range of backgrounds, to participate fully in higher education and achieve their goals.

The legal system of Victorian England is integral to Charles Dickens' novels and to their moral intent. Dickens was acutely conscious of the way in which the Victorian novel operated as a form of moral art. As a novelist he is concerned about the victims of his society and the way in which their lots can be improved. He therefore chooses to construct representative victims of legal institutions such as the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the Court of Chancery in his novels to highlight flaws in his world and the changes that might be made to improve social conditions. This thesis will examine the way in which Dickens' fictional enquiry into the social world his characters stand to inherit is focused on the legal system and its institutions, most particularly, the law of succession. By discussing three novels from different periods of his writing career, Oliver Twist (1837), Bleak House (1853) and Our Mutual Friend (1862-1865), I will suggest how his engineering of moral outcomes shows his development as a writer. The law of succession and related legal institutions such as the Court of Chancery, dealing with wills and inheritance, recurs in Dickens' novels, providing the novelist with social, moral and legal identities for his characters. These identities, as unveiled during the texts, propel the characters and plot development in particular directions in response to the novels' moral intent. The role of inheritance in Victorian society largely provides Dickens with a means to explore the adequacies of existing legal institutions, such as the means by which to prove and execute wills and the operation of the Court of Chancery. The role of inheritance also allows Dickens to examine the social condition of those who are deprived of an inheritance or who are unable to enforce their legal rights. In this respect Dickens concentrates on the appalling conditions of institutions such as workhouses and poorhouses in Victorian society and on resultant criminal activity and prostitution in the community as the disinherited struggle to survive. Dickens' study of crime in particular sheds invaluable light on the prevailing moral standards of, and difficulties with, his society. Dickens acknowledges his pedagogical role as an author, providing synopses of his lessons in the prefaces to his books and forewarning his audience of the literary devices (such as grotesquerie) that are necessary to communicate them effectively. This thesis will examine the way in which Dickens' engineering of moral outcomes through the convenient use of the law of succession becomes increasingly sophisticated as he develops as a writer. The stock plot device of the impoverished orphan child, a representative victim of such a Victorian legal institution as the Poor Laws who is morally saved when elevated into gentility by a secret inheritance, sustains the plot of Oliver Twist. The simplistic and somewhat improbable fortunes of Oliver, however, give way to the more probable moral and legal outcomes of characters such as Jo and Richard Carstone in Bleak House. In Bleak House Carstone, who is certainly a more interesting central protagonist than Esther Summerson in terms of Dickens' examination of legal institutions and their effect on moral and social outcomes in the novel, makes a ruinous attempt to manipulate the legal system and gain control over his fortune by joining the suit of Jarndyce v Jarndyce. In Our Mutual Friend, however, a complex and successful manipulation of the legal system is achieved by Harmon/Handford/Rokesmith, an adult and extremely resourceful character who, in conjunction with other characters such as Bella Wilfer and Mr Boffin, is testament to the inseparability of individual and legal identities as far as moral and social outcomes are concerned. Throughout the novels it can be seen that the abilities of Oliver Twist, Richard Carstone and John Rokesmith to manipulate the law of succession correlate directly to stages of Dickens' maturity as a writer and his increasing confidence about layering texts and developing more complex and sophisticated structures in his novels. Dickens' focus on the role of inheritance, however, entails the development of perspectives on the legal system in entirety. Oliver Twist as a novel drawing upon the traditions of sensation, and turning on events such as 'legacies, birthrights, thefts and deeds of violence', focuses intensely on the criminal justice system and establishes Dickens' famous attraction to repulsion and use of grotesquerie and popular entertainment. Oliver Twist also develops analogies between law and drama, establishing the foundation from which Dickens can employ legal metaphors to great effect in his quest for reforms of the legal system and society at large in Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend. Oliver Twist further establishes the milieu of a stratified society in which finances govern social behaviour and in which the class system is reflected in the legal system through the denial of access to justice to those who are unable to afford it, or suffer gender inequality. Bleak House builds upon the problems outlined in Oliver Twist. It explores the criminal system, particularly the defeminisation of the law and access to justice issues, including the problem of delay in litigation. Specific legal institutions such as the jury system and, most notably, the civil branch of the Victorian legal system with a particular focus on the equitable procedures in the Court of Chancery are examined. Jo is a transmutation of Oliver as representative victim of the Poor Laws, and his fate as such appears more probable. Richard Carstone is, however, the central character in the novel in terms of his construction as the representative victim of the civil system and of the law of succession. In Our Mutual Friend Dickens refines his use of the law of succession and other legal institutions to propel characters into directions suited to his own agendas. The entire plot is constructed from the premise of the execution of a will arising out of the death of John Harmon whose murder is a crime that has never, in fact, been committed. The ramifications of the execution of this will and subsequent codicils are extremely interesting. The novel further examines problems of access to justice and gender inequality under the prevailing legal system, particularly through Bella Wilfer. As part of the development of Dickens' use of the legal system there is a perceptible development of his powers of characterisation. Richard Carstone is a more substantial and believable character than Oliver; John Harmon offers the opportunity for Dickens to experiment with a chameleon identity. This aspect of Dickens' development, however, has received substantial attention already, particularly by Arnold Kettle, Barbara Hardy, Monroe Engel and Grahame Smith. There has been, to the best of my knowledge, little work done on his use of the law of succession, and it is here that I wish to concentrate my argument. Much of Dickens' interest in the law appears to stem from his early career as a legal clerk in Lincoln's Inn and Doctors' Commons. His first job, as a writing clerk in the office of Ellis and Blackmore, a small set of chambers in Holborn Court, involved duties such as copying documents, administering the registration of wills and running errands to other legal offices and law courts. Public offices with which Dickens came into contact in the course of this job were the Alienation Office, the Sixpenny Receivers Office, the Prothonotaries Office, the Clerk of the Escheats, the Dispensation Office, the Affidavit Office, the Filazer's, Exigenter's and Clerk of the Outlawry's Office, the Hanaper Office and the Six-Clerk's office . This employment gave Dickens an exposure to a wide range of jurisdictions and legal precedents. Through this contact with a variety of legal practices, Dickens experienced a broad range of litigation which enabled him to develop opinions on the contemporary operation of the law and its efficacy in the administration of justice. Such experience almost certainly sowed the seeds for much of the critique of the legal system found in his novels. In 1829 when he joined Doctors Commons, Dickens was exposed to ecclesiastical and naval jurisdictions including a Consistory Court, A Court of Arches, the Prerogative Court, the Delegates Court and the Admiralty Court. In this role Dickens was employed by a firm of proctors to take notes on evidence and judgments. This job as a shorthand reporter granted Dickens the opportunity to observe at close range members of the legal profession such as clerks, proctors, secretaries and Doctors. Probably as much through a process of osmosis as anything else, Dickens gained an understanding of the mechanics of basic legal procedures through this type of employment. In order to work as a court reporter, Dickens was required to use shorthand, a method of taking notes that perhaps allowed Dickens to develop the skill to think and write quickly. It was probably at this early stage in his career that the duality of law and literature began to come together for Dickens, developing at a later stage into his volumes of legal fiction. The anonymity of the law writer's existence, as captured later in Dickens' description of Nemo the law-writer in Bleak House, who either lived or did not live by law-writing according to Krook, also may have prompted Dickens to begin writing original works with legal themes.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis is an exploration of my practice as a teacher consultant in the area of gender equity. Focusing on my consultancy practice with teachers in primary school settings, the study explores my development as a teacher consultant. The study is a self-study in teacher education practices and considers the following questions: • How do I experience and understand my practice as a gender equity consultant? • How can I improve my practice as a consultant? • How does self-study contribute to professional learning about consultancy? My learning about consultancy is explored using narrative inquiry methods including field notes, journal entries, in-depth and focus group interviews with participating teachers, and reflections on critical friend interactions. These methods were used to develop stories of teacher professional learning and consultancy that informed my understandings about my work with teachers, and subsequent changes to practice. I argue that the process of becoming a teacher consultant is one of continual construction and reconstruction as one reflects on and reframes experience, based on interactions with teachers, colleagues and the professional literature. This process of reconstruction enables one to come more clearly to know the self in practice, and therefore, better understand the needs of others in teacher professional learning contexts. Finally I argue that self-study of teacher education practices offers teacher consultants the means to investigate their practice in ways which result in transformative learning about their support of professional learning for teachers in school settings. This study has implications for self-study of teacher education practices as it expands this methodology to include its usefulness for understanding the practice of teacher consultants supporting the professional learning of experienced teachers in schools.

n/a

<p><strong>Date: </strong>2009-06-02<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Program: </strong>International Marketing<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Authors: </strong>Anantaya Ponbamrungwong & Sirada Chandsawang<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Title: </strong>The impact of brand on Thai female consumer in purchase decision of foreign makeup product<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Research Question: </strong>Does brand equity affect Thai female consumer in foreign makeup product purchase?<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>to investigate the effect of brand on consumer purchasing decision of foreign makeup product. The outcome of the research would be beneficial to marketing professionals especially in Thai cosmetics-makeup industry to understand the target consumer-based brand equity regarding their purchasing decision<strong>.</strong></p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The concepts of Brand equity and Purchase decision are chosen to study behavior of the target respondents; Thai female consumers who live in Bangkok, Thailand on their purchase decision of buying foreign makeup products.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Brand equity does not totally affect Thai female consumer in their purchasing decision of buying foreign make up products. However, the respondents have the concept of brand equity: brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand associations and perceived quality in their mind but they did not generally relate the whole concepts to make a final purchase decision of foreign makeup products.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Cosmetic, Makeup products, Brand equity, Purchase decision</p>

<p>Hur kan sponsring stärka ett företags varumärke och vilka skillnader</p><p>och likheter finns det mellan hur tjänsteföretag och producerande</p><p>företag använder sig av sponsring i syfte att stärka varumärket?</p><p>Syftet är att studera hur företag använder sig av sponsring i avsikt att stärka</p><p>varumärket samt identifiera skillnader och likheter mellan</p><p>tjänsteföretags och producerande företags sponsringsverksamheter.</p><p>En tvärsnittsstudie har genomförts på fyra fallföretag. Primärdatan</p><p>samlades in genom semistrukturerade personliga intervjuer.</p><p>Den teoretiska referensramen baseras på vår modifierade</p><p>undersökningsmodell, AEGM-modellen, som är utformad utifrån</p><p>befintliga teorier inom ämnesområdena varumärke och sponsring.</p><p>Empiri i form av presentation av de undersökta företagens sponsringsverksamhet och</p><p>intervjupersonernas syn på hur företagen använder sponsring i syfte</p><p>att stärka varumärket.</p><p>Slutsats: Det förefaller skillnader, men även många likheter, mellan hur</p><p>tjänsteföretag och producerande företag använder sig av sponsring.</p><p>Ett varumärke kan stärkas med hjälp av sponsring, exempelvis genom</p><p>att kunden involveras i arrangemanget och att sponsringen</p><p>kombineras med andra marknadsföringsaktiviteter.</p>

<p>Denna uppsats syftar till att öka förståelsen för vad konsumentbaserat varumärkeskapital innebär för försäkringsbolag som erbjuder privat hemförsäkring. Detta dels genom att identifiera vilka dimensioner som kan utgöra varumärkeskapital, dels förstå vilken inverkan dessa har. För att göra detta har en kvalitativ samt en kvantitativ studie genomförts. Först gjordes djupintervjuer med en specifik kundgrupp. Därefter fick ett större urval ur samma kundgrupp svara på en enkät som baserades på litteratur och den kvalitativa studien.Analysen av kvalitativ data visade att dimensionerna kännedom, attitydmässig lojalitet och unikhet kan sägas utgöra varumärkeskapital. Även associationerna trovärdighet, social tillhörighet, upplevd tidsperiod på marknaden (historik), rykte, närhet/lokal förankring och samhällsansvar tillsammans med de upplevda kvalitetsattributen tillgänglighet, snabbhet i skadehanteringsprocessen, personalens bemötande, lättförståelig information och utbud av tjänster kan sägas ligga till grund för varumärkeskapital. Analysen av kvantitativ data visade att det främst var attitydmässig lojalitet, trovärdighet och kvalitet som hade signifikativ inverkan på varumärkeskapitalet definierat som prispremium. Företag som lyckas hantera dessa dimensioner kan således bygga ett starkare varumärke. Ett annat viktigt bidrag är även att de frågor som ställts angående associationer och upplevd kvalitet, kan användas för att mäta varumärkeskapital för företag som säljer hemförsäkring.</p>