Följande komparativa studie genomfördes med fokus på hur nationell jämställdhet kan påverka hur elever värdesätter matematik i relation till sitt framtida yrkesval. Studien omfattar totalt tolv länder som delades in i tre jämställdhetskategorier: hög, medel och låg jämställdhetsrankning. Studien analyserar rådata från den internationella elevenkäten TIMSS 2015 för årskurs 8 med hjälp av statistikprogrammet IBM SPSS. Som utgångspunkt för studien används J.S.Eccles Expectancy-Value teorin (vidare EVT-modellen) och Global Gender Gap jämställdhetsindex från World Economic Forums. GGG-jämställdhetsindex redovisar ett mått på länders reella jämställdhetstillstånd. Resultatet sammanställdes i tabeller (se Bilagor och Analys) och analyserades utifrån studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter och tidigare forskning. I studien formulerades tre frågeställningar där den första undersöker hur elever årskurs 8 värdesätter betydelsen av matematik utifrån fyra aspekter från EVT-modellen. Den andra frågeställningen fokuserar på vilket intresse eleverna har för ett jobb som involverar matematik. Den tredje frågeställningen analyserar sambandet i resultatet mellan de första två frågeställningarna i förhållande till varandra. Studien kom fram till att elevernas värdering av hur mycket de gillar matematik och vilken emotionell kostnad de tillskriver matematik har samband med det intresse som de har för ett jobb med matematik. Sambandet ser ut på så sätt att ju mer elever gillar matematik desto mer intresserade är dem av ett jobb som involverar matematik. Samtidigt tillskriver elever som är intresserade av jobbet också en hög emotionell kostnad till matematiken. I resultatet framkom också stora skillnader mellan pojkar och flickors värdering av matematik i de högt rankade länderna. Med studien som bakgrund ser vi att skillnader i värdering av matematik mellan pojkar och flickor inte behöver innebära något negativt. Istället indikerar de stora könsklyftor i de högt rankade länderna att de erbjuds en större frihet att uttrycka sin könsidentitet. Studien visar att det snarare är likheter i ländernas kulturella ordning än jämställdhetsrankning i sig som påverkar hur pojkar och flickor förhåller sig till matematik inom de tre jämställdhetskategorierna.

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Cultural/heritage tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry because there is a trend toward an increased specialization among tourists. This trend is evident in the rise in the volume of tourists who seek adventure, culture, history, archaeology and interaction with local people (Hollinshead, 1993). Especially, Americans' interest in traveling to cultural/ heritage destinations has increased recently and is expected to continue. For example, cultural/heritage sites are among the most preferred tourism experiences in America. (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, 1998) The recent studies about cultural/heritage tourism focused on the characteristics of tourists who visited cultural/heritage destinations. The study attempts to investigate the relationship between cultural/heritage destination attributes and tourist satisfaction, and to identify the relationship between cultural/heritage destination attributes and tourist satisfaction in terms of selected tourists' demographic characteristics and travel behavior characteristics. The expectancy-disconfirmation theory provided a conceptual framework for this study. The expectancy-disconfirmation theory holds that consumers first form expectations of products or service performance prior to purchasing or use. Subsequently, purchasing and use convey to the consumer beliefs about the actual or perceived performance of the product(s) or service(s). The consumer then compares the perceived performance to prior expectations. Consumer satisfaction is seen as the outcome of this comparison (Clemons & Woodruff, 1992). The study area for this study was Virginia Historic Triangle (Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown). Virginia Historic Triangle has been called the largest living museum in the world. Furthermore, it is one of America's popular vacation destinations, attracting more than 4 million tourists each year. The data of this study were collected from the on-site survey method. The sample population for this study was composed of tourists who visited Virginia Historic Triangle between June and August in 2001. The survey was conducted at five different sites in the Virginia Historic Triangle. Out of 300 questionnaires, 251 were usable. Therefore, the data from 251 respondents were analyzed in this study. Appropriate statistical analyses such as frequencies, descriptive, factor analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regressions, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) were used according to respective objectives and descriptors. The factor analysis was conducted to create correlated variable composites from the original 25 attributes. Using factor analysis, 25 destination attributes resulted to four dimensions: General Tour Attraction, Heritage Attraction, Maintenance Factors, and Culture Attraction. These four factors then were related with overall satisfaction. Correlation analysis revealed that four factors were correlated with tourists' overall satisfaction. The multiple regression analysis revealed that there was relationship between cultural/heritage destination attributes and tourists' overall satisfaction. MANOVA revealed that there was significant difference between derived factors in relation to only total household income and the length of stay among 10 demographic and travel behavior characteristics. ANOVA revealed that there is a significant difference in the overall satisfaction of tourists by gender, past experience, and decision time to travel. Finally, MANCOVA revealed that only one of the control variables (past experience) controlled the relationship between the overall satisfaction of tourists and derived factors. Based upon the results of this study, several recommendations can be made to increase tourists' satisfaction with the Virginia Historic Triangle. First, comprehending what tourists seek at cultural/heritage attractions will help tourism marketers better understand their customers. Second, identifying which attributes satisfy the tourist who visit cultural/heritage destinations will help tourism planners develop appropriate strategies to attract their customers and serve them effectively. Third, knowing who the satisfied tourists are may help reduce marketing costs and maintain cultural/heritage destinations' sustainability. / Master of Science

In the present paper, we examine the effect of socioeconomic characteristics on the life expectancy of men and women in the Stockholm metropolitan area. Detailed individual data allows for a novel approach where observations can be displayed in high resolution. As is often the case with geographical data, the variables display high spatial autocorrelations, which imply that observations in proximity are more, or less, similar than what could be expected under the assumption of independent and identically distributed observations. Presence of spatial autocorrelation makes conventional regression models nonfunctional, and a model that accounts for this is therefore specified. In addition, a distance-band which reflects the distance and association between observations is determined. Lagrange Multiplier tests, AIC, log-likelihood, and the Schwarz criterion suggest that a spatial error model with a 300-meter distance band is appropriate for the data at hand. The findings suggest that: (1) Belonging to a minority group has the strongest effect on life expectancies and (2) the effect is negative for both genders, although the negative impact is stronger for males. Tests for spatial autocorrelation on the residuals suggest that the adopted spatial error model captures nearly all spatial autocorrelation in the data, compared to alternative models.

Masters of Commerce / The provision of health care in South Africa is undergoing major restructuring. The aim is to achieve substantial, visible and sustainable improvements to the efficiency and accessibility of primary healthcare (PHC) services for all South Africans. One of the country's most critical problems is the weak and fragmented public sector PHC system. The most critical problems contributing to this are the maldistribution of resources (financial, physical and human) between hospitals and the primary care system, and between rural and urban areas. The health sector, therefore, faces the challenge of a complete restructuring and transformation of the national health care delivery system and related institutions. Choices need to be made about which services to cut, which to streamline and where savings can be made. Ways need to be found to use ALL of South Africa's resources optimally. This process of restructuring would be facilitated by the availability of accurate information on resource utilisation in the health sector. This study estimates the difference in the cost of primary diabetes treatment at dayhospitals and a provincial hospital in the Western Cape in 1992/93. Health economics is in its infancy in South Africa and serious data limitations exist. This study is therefore a pioneering effort in many ways. An appropriate methodological framework in which to conduct the costing had to be developed. The South African health sector, health spending arid the cost of primary diabetes treatment at day-hospitals and the provincial hospital are reviewed. Theoretical perspectives of the health care market and the methodologies of cost analysis are discussed. The cost analysis method of study is chosen, and arguments are advanced for its suitability in the South African context. A simple method of calculating the direct costs to obtain the average cost is proposed for the purpose of the study. Direct costs consist of staff costs and other related costs, such as medical supplies, non-medical supplies, building operations, equipment etc. These costs are then used to calculate the average costs per diabetic patient at the day-hospitals and the provincial hospital. The average cost per diabetic patient at day-hospitals amounted to R18.76, while at the provincial hospital the cost was R59.60. https://

For decades, blacks have faced shorter life expectancy than their white counterparts. This persistent disparity has led to a gap in life expectancy between the two groups. Nationally, this gap has decreased over the last 40 years. However, this is not the case at the state-level as some states have experienced little or no improvement in the life expectancy gap. Such is the case in Wisconsin, where the life expectancy gap is the largest in the nation for males, and the gap actually has grown for females over the last two decades. This study seeks to examine this persistent gap in Wisconsin by looking at different causes of death and the ages when they contribute most to the gap. Additionally, this study will examine how the contribution of certain causes of death have changed over time, both between blacks and whites, and also within each group. Using 1999-2001 and 2009-2011 data from the National Center for Health Statistics, this study found that heart disease and malignant neoplasms (cancer) contributed most to the life expectancy gap between blacks and whites and also over time within each group. For females, diabetes and perinatal conditions were found to be top contributors to the black-white gap. Diabetes contributed most after the age of 50. For males, homicide was found to be a top contributor to the black-white gap, particularly among youth aged 15 to 29. Homicide among males frequently ranked near heart disease and malignant neoplasms as a leading contributor to the gap. These findings tell us that by reducing death rates from these causes at particular moments in the life course, the life expectancy gap between blacks and whites can be reduced. This study provides important evidence that health policy makers can use to address racial disparities in life expectancy.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / This study examines the implementation of the Performance Management System (PMS) in local government, with specific reference to municipalities in the Chris Hani District in the Eastern Cape. The research is premised on the assumption that even though a PMS has been adopted in municipalities with the aim of assisting them to function effectively, municipalities in the Eastern Cape, particularly in Christ Hani District, continue to experience performance challenges. The study presupposes that the implementation of the performance management system at the municipality, whether effective or ineffective, has a direct relationship with the performance of the municipality. The study includes a historical overview of local government with the aim of understanding government reforms introduced to assist municipalities to build their capacity to enable them to perform well. It utilises purposive sampling to identify the most appropriate participants based on the research objectives. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and a review of relevant documents. As part of the analysis, summaries of the responses of interviewees were written in a meaningful way in line with the thematic areas determined in accordance with the research objectives. The municipality uses the Balances Scorecard as a performance management tool to determine the performance level of individuals and to detect areas that need corrective measures across the local municipalities. There are inconsistencies in the implementation, depending on how well the particular local municipality is resourced. In any municipality, the effective implementation of the PMS requires the municipality to reward excellent performers, which requires increases in the personnel budget to cater for monitory rewards.

The present study sought to confirm melodic expectancy patterns discovered in a previous investigation and to determine whether data would be affected by altering the rhythmic condition of the stimuli. The three problems of this investigation were to study expectancies generated by two-note stimulus intervals of equal duration; the expectancies generated by stimulus intervals presented with a long-short rhythm; and the expectancies generated by stimulus intervals presented with a short-long rhythm. Fifty subjects were asked to sing what they believed would be the natural continuation of the melody begun by a two-note stimulus interval. The stimulus intervals were grouped in rhythmic sets, one set of neutral-rhythm stimuli, one set of long-short stimuli, and one set of short-long stimuli. The interval from the second note of the stimulus interval to the first sung note was transcribed as the generated expectancy response interval. The data were examined in two basic ways, using response data as a whole and examining data for each stimulus interval separately. A third method of data evaluation concerned harmonic triads occurring in the response data. Both when considering response frequency as a whole, and when considering response data separately for each melodic beginning, no significant difference associated with rhythmic condition could be found. Smaller response intervals were generated much more often than large intervals. Some stimulus intervals, notably the major second ascending, were observed to be much more powerful generators than others. It was concluded from these results that in response to two-note stimulus intervals melodic expectancy can clearly be shown to operate, confirming the results of an earlier study, but that no effect of rhythm on melodic expectancy can be shown to operate.

It has long been accepted by science education research that science inquiry in the classroom is essential to the development of a deep understanding of the nature of science and the world around us. In an effort to understand the relationship between science inquiry, science process skills, the nature of science and science and engineering fairs, this mixed methods study qualitatively explores teaching strategies of exemplary science and engineering teachers (N=6) who mentored several International Science and Engineering Fair finalists within a 10 year period (2004-2014). The quantitative portion of this research explored the relationship between science fair participation and academic achievement. Using the theoretical framework of modern expectancy-value theory, 5 themes emerged. All believed: 1) there is intrinsic value in science inquiry and science fair; 2) all included strategic engagement opportunities for students; 3) intrinsic value and motivation potentially lead to increased academic aptitude; 4) the benefits of science inquiry and science fair outweigh costs; and 5) there is a link between intrinsic value in science and engineering fair and utility value. Of the schools (N=31) identified for the quantitative study, demographic analysis (gender, ethnicity, socio-economic statics, and size of school) narrowed to 8 treatment schools with one control school indicated no statistical relationship between academic performance on a standardized state science examination and science fair participation. An ad hoc study indicated the standardized testing instrument was not an adequate measurement of the level of inquiry included in a science and engineering fair project. In conclusion, a list comprised of exemplary science and engineering fair suggestions was formulated to include descriptions of similar teaching strategies or issues among the exemplary science and engineering fair teachers with intentions of increasing science inquiry or the nature of science in the classroom through the science and engineering fair framework.

In this dissertation, the researcher examined teachers' understandings and attitudes about the teaching of argument and how professional development (PD) affected those understandings and attitudes. The teaching of argument is important because argument promotes critical thinking skills, authentic learning opportunities, increased conceptual development, and meaningful discussions about topics that are important to students. The researcher gathered data about 14 teachers’ understandings and attitudes and looked at them as a qualitative case study bounded by their common experience in a PD opportunity during the summer with return visits to PD in the fall and the following spring. The findings include: (1) teachers had little to no previous experience with argument in their own learning or teaching, (2) the teaching of a new strategy, like argument, requires ongoing, systematic PD, and (3) after PD the teachers developed more complex, nuanced understanding of and value for the teaching of argument. These findings were significant in that preservice teacher programs, district PD opportunities, and teacher-led PD learning communities must strategically and intentionally address argument for its power in the 21st century classroom.