There are four main components for influencing traders' behaviors in an information market context: trader characteristics, organizational characteristics, market design, and external information. This dissertation focuses on investigating the impact of individual trader characteristics on trading behaviors. Two newly-developed constructs, highly relevant to information market contexts, were identified to increase our understanding about trading behaviors: trader's economic culture and trader independence. The theory of planned behavior is used as the theoretical basis to postulate hypotheses for empirical testing. Data collected from subjects through a series of web-based experiments shows that trader participation can be fostered through recruiting individuals who are entrepreneurial, risk takers, and not highly independent traders. Additionally, a set of objective measures were developed to operationalize trader participation and performance (accuracy of prediction, and profitability). The research investigation on these concepts suggests that there is statistical evidence for a positive influence of trader participation on trader performance. In comparing the quantity influence (trader participation) and the quality influence (trader accuracy) on trader profitability, we have found that trader accuracy had higher and more significant impact than trader participation.

Domestic violence against women and children is a significant international issue. There are many obstacles survivors face, and the problem is more complex than is often perceived. This interior design practicum responds by focusing on the design of a transitional housing facility that creates a paradigm shift away from the institutional approach. The key interior spaces include areas that help individuals nourish and heal from their challenging experiences; the overall approach focused on establishing community networks amongst the residents. The overarching architectural language and designs were informed primarily by Japanese Zen, Theory of Supportive Design, Lifeboat theory, and Experiential Learning Theory. Additional literature investigation on Shinrin-yoku and Therapeutic Landscapes have helped to shape the final programme and design. Along with relevant precedent studies, a design has been proposed called Hana's Place, a transitional housing facility that is aimed at being a place survivors of domestic violence can call home.

This research explores how concepts of women’s independence are constituted, through neo-liberal and feminist discourses, by members of a feminist organization for women leaving abuse. Analysis of eight interviews and eight focus groups with organizational members, collected over a four year period, surface contesting discourses about individualism, choice, economic independence, collectivity and structural analyses. These discourses interact to produce complex conceptualizations of women’s independence, and produced new subjectivities for women within the organization. In the data, neo-liberal and feminist influences produced an integration of self-responsibility and collectivity, creating new ways of understanding women’s agency. Knowledge of these changing notions of gendered independence in organizations allows feminists to be strategic and reflexive about feminist political work within changing social and political terrain.

A graphical model is simply a representation of the results of an analysis of relationships between sets of variables. It can include the study of the dependence of one variable, or a set of variables on another variable or sets of variables, and can be extended to include variables which could be considered as intermediate to the others. This leads to the concept of representing these chains of relationships by means of a graph; where variables are represented by vertices, and relationships between the variables are represented by edges. These edges can be either directed or undirected, depending upon the type of relationship being represented. The thesis investigates a number of outstanding problems in the area of statistical modelling, with particular emphasis on representing the results in terms of a graph. The thesis will study models for multivariate discrete data and in the case of binary responses, some theoretical results are given on the relationship between two common models. In the more general setting of multivariate discrete responses, a general class of models is studied and an approximation to the maximum likelihood estimates in these models is proposed. This thesis also addresses the problem of measurement errors. An investigation into the effect that measurement error has on sample size calculations is given with respect to a general measurement error specification in both linear and binary regression models. Finally, the thesis presents, in terms of a graphical model, a re-analysis of a set of childhood growth data, collected in South Wales during the 1970s. Within this analysis, a new technique is proposed that allows the calculation of derived variables under the assumption that the joint relationships between the variables are constant at each of the time points.

Un autre essai sur la sempiternelle question de l'unite canadienne, deplorez-vous presentement. Pis encore, ajoutez-vous, on y aborde une fois de plus l'ennuyeuse et l'ennuyante problematique constitutionnelle. Et pourquoi l'auteur a-t-il choisi un tel sujet? Parce qu'il fait partie de la race des fatigants mais infatigables maniaques de cet incessant debat qu'est celui des Deux Solitudes? Possible. Surement meme. Mais il y a plus: le Renvoi relatif a la secession du Quebec ne represente pas qu'un simple episode de la saga constitutionnelle canadienne. Vraisemblablement, ces implications pratiques pourraient un jour sceller l'issue du debat. Certes, le mouvement separatiste quebecois, loin d'etre moribond, ne s'eteindra pas sur la seule base d'une decision de la Cour supreme du Canada. Pretendre le contraire releve de la fantaisie, de l'outrecuidance ou encore, d'un manque tangible de pragmatisme politique. Toutefois, un fait persiste: applique in extenso, l'Avis s'avere une serieuse embuche sur le chemin menant a l'independance. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This study seeks to analyze the process of transition and democratization in Kyrgyzstan from 1990 to 2000. The collapse of the Soviet Union opened new political perspectives for Kyrgyzstan and a chance to develop sovereign state based on democratic principles and values. Initially Kyrgyzstan attained some progress in building up a democratic state. However, in the second half of 1990s Kyrgyzstan shifted toward authoritarianism. Therefore, the full-scale transition to democracy has not been realized, and a well-functioning democracy has not been established. This study aims to focus on the impediments that led to the failure of establishing democracy in Kyrgyzstan. It analyzes the role of economy, political elites and political culture in the form of tribalism in Kyrgyzstan within the framework of the economic and political changes that have been undergoing since independence. The political and economic developments in Kyrgyzstan are discussed with specific reference to the hardships in economic transition, elite continuity and role of tribal and clan structures in present politics.

日本系統的台獨運動在1950年代發端至1960年代由台灣青年社扛起大旗並引領、啟蒙世界各地的台灣留學生，在1970年代交棒，台獨運動的重心轉至美國。在這樣一個運動興衰的過程中，台灣青年社無疑扮演了 「銜接與轉換點」的關鍵角色。《台灣青年》作為台灣青年社的機關刊物，更承擔起論述台灣民族主義的重責大任。《台灣青年》所呈現的台灣民族主義面貌，在對外的界線上，劃出了中國人與台灣人的清楚鴻溝，但包納了在海外的台僑，在對內的界線上，曖昧的區分出原住民與漢人，但對閩客問題卻未有更多的討論。在 「台灣人」的內涵中，《台灣青年》試圖以多種方式定義台灣人，有從族群演變的觀點，也有從歷史事實的分隔點，更試圖直接探討抽象理論，希望找到清楚定義的嘗試。而對於台灣人過去的書寫，具有代表性的「列傳」專欄，卻呈現出立場跳動的問題，最後草草收場。在觀察史明等人的共同體論述後，大致可以認定，《台灣青年》主張台灣人意識與中國人意識從未重疊發展，而是在不同的空間下各自發展，而當台灣在日本統治下發展出具近代性意義的共同體意識時，中國卻尚未形成，這也是兩者無法消弭的界線。而台灣的現在到未來，《台灣青年》也持續不斷的觀察、思考與想像。在國際上，他們堅持要求尊重台灣人民族自決的權利，進而創造出一中一台的國際空間，在國內，他們針貶時政，並在海外對島內的政治反對運動遙相呼應，同時以清晰的表達台灣民族主義運動的立場來為將來定調。 / The Taiwan independent movement in Japan launched from 1950’s.During 1960’s ,it was lead by Taiwan Chinglian(Youth) Association, to inspire Taiwanese students studying abroad worldwide. Until 1970’s the independent movement was transported from Japan to America. From 1960’s to 1970’s, Taiwan Chinglian(Youth) Association played a key role .Taiwan Chinglian , as a journal of Taiwan Chinglian(Youth) Association, took the great responsibility of defining and explaining the meaning of Taiwanese Nationalism.First of all, The defining made by Taiwan Chinglian , it clearly told the difference of Chinese and Taiwanese, but including overseas Taiwanese .Second, it not apparently told the difference of aborigine and Han people , and did not discuss the difference of the problem between Minnan people and Hakka people .In the contents of Taiwanese , Taiwan Chinglian tried to use variety approaches to define Taiwanese, someone defined it from the changing of folk ,someone defined from confirming the turning point of historical truth ,and someone even tried to discuss the abstract theory . In explanation of Taiwan history ,the representative column ‘Biography(列傳)’ failed to find the same standard to define Taiwanese. After observing the community discourse of Su-Bing and the others, we can find that they considered Taiwanese awareness and Chinese awareness has never engaged and developed in different spaces. When Taiwanese had developed the modern community consciousness under Japan’s domination , Chinese modern community consciousness had not yet .And that is the line between Taiwanese and Chinese that can not be erased. In 1960’s ,Taiwan Chinglian continued to observe and imagine the exist and the future of Taiwanese. About international affair , they demanded other countries to respect the Taiwanese right of national self-determination , and claim one China and one Taiwan . They discussed and cared about the politics and democracy activities on the inside of Taiwan . and clearly stated the stand point of Taiwanese nationalism activity to define the future of Taiwan.

The aim of this research is to highlight both the conceptual and practical factors that constrain attempts to link humanitarian assistance and development aid in political emergencies in Southern Africa by using the case study of Mozambique in the period between 1975-1995. Extensive use and reference to Norwegian relief and development aid during the above-mentioned period is made. Although cross-reference is made to other donor countries such as the Like-minded Group (comprising of Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland) and UN agencies that supported Mozambique's transition from war to peace, the major focus is on Norway as she has traditionally been the sixth largest bilateral donor by the early 1990's and incorporated long-term development priorities in her programs.

In daily activities, hand use is dominated by individuated thumb and finger movements, and by grasping. This thesis focused on the level of ???independence??? of the digits and its relationship to hand grasps, from the level of the motor units to the level of synergistic grasping forces. Four major studies were conducted in healthy adult volunteers. First, spike-triggered averages of forces produced by single motor units in flexor pollicis longus (FPL) in a grasp posture showed small but significant loading of the index, but not other fingers. This reflected a neural rather than anatomical coupling, as intramuscular stimulation produced minimal effect in any finger. Also, FPL had a surprisingly large number of low-force motor units and this may account for the thumb???s exceptional dexterity and force stability compared with the fingers. Second, independent control of extensor digitorum (ED) was more limited than flexor digitorum profundus (FDP), as more ED motor units of a ???test??? finger were recruited inadvertently by extension than by flexion of adjacent digits. Third, ???force enslavement??? in maximal voluntary tasks was greater in digit extension than flexion. The distribution of force enslavement (and deficits) matched the pattern of daily use of the digits (alone and in combination), and reveals a neural control system which preferentially lifts fingers together from an object by extension but allows an individual digit to flex to contact an object so the finger pads can engage in exploration and grasping. Finally, during grasping, irrespective of whether a digit had been lifted from the object, coherence among forces generated by the digits was similar. In addition, the coherence between finger forces was independent of any contraction of the thumb, was stable over 2 months, and required no learning. The pattern of coherence between digital grasping forces may be closely related to the level of digit independence and daily use. Overall, the grasp synergy was remarkably invariant over the various tasks and over time. In summary, this thesis demonstrates novel aspects of the properties of FPL, the lack of complete independence of the digits, and robustness in the production of flexion forces in hand grasps.

This research explores how concepts of women’s independence are constituted, through neo-liberal and feminist discourses, by members of a feminist organization for women leaving abuse. Analysis of eight interviews and eight focus groups with organizational members, collected over a four year period, surface contesting discourses about individualism, choice, economic independence, collectivity and structural analyses. These discourses interact to produce complex conceptualizations of women’s independence, and produced new subjectivities for women within the organization. In the data, neo-liberal and feminist influences produced an integration of self-responsibility and collectivity, creating new ways of understanding women’s agency. Knowledge of these changing notions of gendered independence in organizations allows feminists to be strategic and reflexive about feminist political work within changing social and political terrain.