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Thesis (B.A.)--Bryn Mawr College, Dept. of Anthropology, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by a triad of clinical features which include lack of social interaction and communication, behavioral stereotypes, and a range of cognitive deficits. The presence of motor deficits has often been observed in the children with autism who are described as being clumsy or awkward in their movements. There is, however, considerable ambiguity related to universality, severity and exact nature of these motor difficulties. The objective of this study was to assess the movement characteristics of children with ASD and to place their motor dysfunction in the context of their functional independence in the performance of daily living skills. Seventeen children diagnosed with Autism or PDD-NOS in the age range of 5-11 years were recruited and assessed using two standardized tests of motor function; the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency - Second Edition (BOT-2; Bruininks 2005) and the Movement Assessment Battery for children (M ABC-2; Henderson, Sugden, & Barnett 2007) and a third assessment of functional independence in children WeeFIM (WeeFIM System, 1999). Most of the children showed movement characteristics that ranged from mild to severe impairment, though two children showed no motor difficulties. However, when compared, as a group, to age matched norms, it was noted that the motor skill performance of children with ASD was noticeably poorer. Marked impairments were observed in tasks that required manual dexterity, upper limb coordination, strength and agility. Children with ASD also showed greater functional disability compared to age-matched norms, however, their degree of motor dysfunction by itself did not correlate with their performance of daily living skills. This study provides invaluable insights into movement characteristics of children on the autism spectrum and highlights the need for including motor assessment as a routine investigation for children with autism. / text

This thesis considers the use of independence referendums in state-creation. It investigates whether and how an independence referendum affects secessionist dynamics, and may increase or decrease the likelihood of secession. The analysis consists of a quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods approach, which includes the creation of a new dataset on secessionist movements and independence referendums from 1905 to 2014, and an in-depth comparative study of Quebec and Montenegro. Independence referendums, as sovereignty referendums, ask the ‘people’, symbolic holders of the sovereign authority of a state under a democratic regime, whether their sovereignty should remain represented by the current state, or by a new independent sovereign state. A distinction between unilateral and agreed independence referendums is made in order to consider when and how ‘the will of the people’ determines state-creation. It is argued that only an agreed independence referendum can ensure that the referendum itself determines the secessionist outcome. The thesis argues that independence referendums are an important legitimisation tool and their outcome’s binding effect is primarily a result of political, rather than legal, dynamics. The reasons behind the calling and holding of an independence referendum, and why a state government would consent to it, are analysed to account for a possible problem of endogeneity whereby the presence of an independence referendum might be determined by how likely the secessionist movement is to secede in the first place, regardless of the plebiscite. An institutional arrangement that allows for internal self-determination (such as ethnic-federalism), and access to executive powers at the regional level, was found to facilitate the mobilisation of the population in favour of secession, and the ability to call and hold a plebiscite. It is not in itself sufficient however to secure a majority in favour of independence, and other societal, political and economic contextual factors need to be taken into account to explain why a population would wish to secede. Focusing on consensual independence referendums agreed by both the government of the existing state and secessionist leaders, the thesis further explores when and how an independence referendum affects the likelihood of secession, notably existing popular support for independence. The thesis finds that the design and campaign in particular are important elements in deciding whose support counts, how much of it is needed, and how it can be mobilised. Nonetheless, the referendum process, who participates in it and to what extent existing preferences on the question of independence can be altered are context-dependent. Finally, the perceived legitimacy of the referendum process and outcome are argued to be essential for the voting result to be binding on actors operating at the sub-state level, state level and international level and the independence referendum to successfully answer the question of secession. The review of independence referendums since the turn of the 20th century and the thesis findings suggest that independence referendums not only create important precedents within the state they are held, but also have international consequences. As democratic norms compete with the principle of state integrity and becomes entangled with a nationalist narrative, independence referendums may have an increasingly important role to play in state-creation.

My goal was to attempt to analyze impact of Kosovo crisis on international relations. Kosovo issue and its solutions have shaped two important principles of international relations in the last decade, which by repeating tend to become precedents. The first principle is humanitarian intervention without the mandate of UN, which was first applied in Yugoslavia in 1999. Similar action was applied in several different states during the last decade. Second principle, which is the main subject of my thesis, is unilateral declaration of independence which was recognized by more sovereign states then in previous occasions. By analysis of events in Georgia I tried to prove that separatism could become an instrument of international relations in future. Authority of UN is shaken in last decade and it could lead to reshaping of world order. Single-sided interpretation of morality and principles can replace international law. Apart from analyzing global impact of Kosovo crises I have tried to explore the problem in detail by researching the causes that let to conflict. Most of the attention I have devoted to period between 1974 and 1999, which I find crucial in the forming a situation that led to unilateral declaration in 2008. In the first part of my work I tended to explore international law arguments that were used by both followers and opponents of independence and tried to preview aspects of teory of secession

The purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence relevant to perceptions of internal auditor independence. Specifically, this study investigates how the auditor practitioners (both internal and external auditors) perceive the importance of five selected factors that characterize the organizational settings of an internal audit department. Role theory is the frame of reference used to develop the conceptual model for this study in which the judgment of internal auditor independence is viewed as the role perception of internal auditors. A modified version of the Brunswik's lens model was developed to provide "paramorphic" representation of judgment of independence. The research methodology of this study is based upon a laboratory experiment in which a replicated factorial design was used to elicit the subjects' judgments of independence. The data collected from this experiment were analyzed by three statistical methods: conjoint measurement, multiple regression, and cluster analysis. The major findings follow. First, the five selected factors were not perceived as equally important by the subjects. In general, internal auditor's scope of audit. scope o^ service, and reporting level were perceived as more important than adequacy of organizational support. and formalization of audit policies. Second, the two groups of auditors disagree, significantly, on the relative importance of scope of internal audit service. Third, while large individual differences existed on the relative importance of the five selected factors, the degree of judgment consensus, in general, is high within each auditor group. Fourth, the internal auditor's perceived role conflict and role ambiguity were inversely related to his perceived level of professional autonomy. Finally, the internal auditors' judgments were not notably affected by the perceptions of their own organizational environment. However, as evidenced by the different types of experienced role conflict and ambiguity, the nature of these auditors' environment varied considerably, Given the above findings, the following implications are suggested: First, the organizational settings are critical of internal auditor independence. Improperly structured settings not only affect the perceived independence but also are detrimental to professional autonomy — de facto independence. Second, rule making bodies should provide more explicit guidelines concerning internal audit independence evaluation, particularly, in the area of scope of internal audit service. Third, while the auditor's reporting level is an important factor to independence, it should not be the only consideration. Other factors, such as the ones used in this study, should be also evaluated to avoid misleading results.

Yes / The concepts of independence and totalness of subspaces are introduced in the context of quasi-probability distributions in phase space, for quantum systems with finite-dimensional Hilbert space. It is shown that due to the non-distributivity of the lattice of subspaces, there are various levels of independence, from pairwise independence up to (full) independence. Pairwise totalness, totalness and other intermediate concepts are also introduced, which roughly express that the subspaces overlap strongly among themselves, and they cover the full Hilbert space. A duality between independence and totalness, that involves orthocomplementation (logical NOT operation), is discussed. Another approach to independence is also studied, using Rota’s formalism on independent partitions of the Hilbert space. This is used to define informational independence, which is proved to be equivalent to independence. As an application, the pentagram (used in discussions on contextuality) is analysed using these concepts.

The large accounting scandals in the early 21st century had large impact on the future discussion regarding the importance of auditor independence. This led to stricter auditor independence rules in Sweden as well as internationally. Small and medium-sized enterprises frequently hire their auditor for consulting services. A long and close audit-client relationship is common for small and medium sized enterprises. This is considered to be a threat towards the auditor independence. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether Swedish small and medium sized enterprises, who are required to be audited, are aware of the auditor independence regulations. The thesis further aims analyze if the regulation of audit independence is as necessary for small companies as for large companies with additional number of shareholders. A qualitative study has been performed where data has been collected through 102 telephone interviews with small and medium-sized companies. A questionnaire consisting of both multiple choice and open questions has been used for the interviews. The collected data were compiled in SPSS which generated graphs and tables that then were analyzed. Small and medium-sized companies believe it is important that the auditor is independent towards their company. On the other hand, management in Swedish small and medium-sized enterprises has no direct knowledge of what the auditor independence regulation implies. / De stora redovisningsskandalerna i början av 2000-talet fick stor betydelse för den kommande diskussionen angående vikten av revisorns oberoende. Detta ledde till strängare regler för revisorerna i Sverige såväl som internationellt. Revisorn fungerar i många små och medelstora företag som en ekonomisk rådgivare. Små företag har ofta en lång och nära relation med sin revisor. Detta anses vara ett hot mot revisorns oberoende. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om revisionspliktiga små och medelstora företag är medvetna om reglerna gällande revisorns oberoende. Uppsatsen avser vidare att analysera om reglerna för revisorns oberoende är lika nödvändiga för små företag som för stora företag med en stor andel aktieägare. En kvalitativ undersökning har utförts där data från 102 telefonintervjuer med små och medelstora företag har samlats in. Ett frågeformulär med både flersvarsfrågor och öppna frågor har legat som grund för undersökningen. Den insamlade datan sammanställdes i SPSS vilket genererade grafer och tabeller som sedan analyserades. Små och medelstora företag anser att det är viktigt att revisorn är oberoende gentemot deras företag. Å andra sidan har ledningen i svenska små och medelstora företag ingen direkt kunskap om vad revisorns oberoende reglering innebär.

In the field of cognitive science, as well as the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the role of context has been investigated in many forms, and for many purposes. It is clear in both areas that consideration of contextual information is important. However, the significance of context has not been emphasized in the Bayesian networks literature. We suggest that consideration of context is necessary for acquiring knowledge about a situation and for refining current representational models that are potentially erroneous due to hidden independencies in the data.<p>In this thesis, we make several contributions towards the automation of contextual consideration by discovering useful contexts from probability distributions. We show how context-specific independencies in Bayesian networks and discovery algorithms, traditionally used for efficient probabilistic inference can contribute to the identification of contexts, and in turn can provide insight on otherwise puzzling situations. Also, consideration of context can help clarify otherwise counter intuitive puzzles, such as those that result in instances of Simpson's paradox. In the social sciences, the branch of attribution theory is context-sensitive. We suggest a method to distinguish between <i>dispositional causes</i> and <i>situational factors</i> by means of contextual models. Finally, we address the work of Cheng and Novick dealing with causal attribution by human adults. Their <i>probabilistic contrast model</i> makes use of contextual information, called focal sets, that must be determined by a human expert. We suggest a method for discovering complete <i>focal sets</i> from probabilistic distributions, without the human expert.