There were two major problems posed by this study: (1) the effects of a systematic inservice training program for counselors, and (2) the relationship between the type of verbal behavior used by the counselor and client movement.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how two small and medium sized Swedish apparel firms internationalize their business activities.The international business activities are more frequent now than ever because cross border trade barriers are much less today. The companies internationalize their business operations for several reasons. High saturation in the local market, cheap supply line, hunting for resources and potential opportunities in the international market are the driving factors for internationalization. The small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have no exception from such motives. Generally (SMEs) have fewer resources than big multinationals therefore internationalization is more difficult and challenging for (SMEs). The existing internationalization theories highlight several ways for internationalization. The internationalization process model depicts that companies extend their business activities from less to far psychic distance countries and gradually increase their commitment in the international market based on experiential knowledge i.e. knowledge learned by doing. The revised model argued that companies involve in internationalization by utilizing domestic or international network. The psychic distance concept argued that companies face two types psychic distance i.e. inter – country and inter – firm psychic distance. We developed our interaction process model for internationalization. According to the interaction process model when firms start interaction within network these have higher psychic distance level and lower trust and commitment because firms initially interact occasionally. With the passage of time as the interaction of firms within network gains some pace the psychic distance level started to reduce and trust and commitment builds upward. Finally a stag arrives when psychic distance level reached at least stage and inversely trust and commitment at higher level and this result into international opportunity. Thus firms by hunting international opportunity gets involve in internationalization. Inversely, international opportunity can also be developed at initial or middle stage and interaction process start at later stages. But in such situation psychic distance level is comparatively high and trust and commitment will be low because there is no or lesser interaction among firms. The internationalization in such a way will be more risky.

The purpose of the following study was to advance the science of leadership emergence by taking a process-oriented approach to understand the dyadic micro-level interacts that underlie the emergence of leader-follower relationship. While most leadership emergence research focuses mainly on attributes, behaviors, or perceptions of individuals and neglects the multi-level, temporal and contextual of the emergence leaders, this study focuses on dyads' attributes, behaviors and perceptions and considers the teams, over time, and in situ. Individuals worked together in teams over the course of four weeks to accomplish a task, and their verbal interactions were recorded and coded. Attributes of dyads and dyadic perceptions of leader-follower relationship emergence were collected. Results showed dyads that were more similar in leadership self-efficacy were more likely to engage in symmetrical types of interactions. Furthermore, the more dyads engaged in such symmetrical exchanges, the more likely they were to both see each other as leaders, than to both not see each as leaders. Contrary to expectations, no significant results were found for the effect of dyadic dissimilarity on dyadic interactions, or for the effect of complementary interactions of leader-follower relationship emergence. Implications of these findings are discussed. / Ph. D.

Bakgrund: Att vårdas i hemmet istället för på sjukhus eller på vårdboende blir vanligare då antalet sjukhusplatser minskar och nya typer av vårdformer etablerats. Detta kan innebära att sjuksköterskor någon gång under sitt yrkesverksamma liv kan komma att vårda patienter i deras eget hem och på så sätt lämna den miljö som sjuksköterskan vanligtvis är van vid.Syfte: Syftet med studien är att med utgångspunkt från; roll, relation och bemötande studera sjuksköterskors upplevelse av att vårda och bemöta patienter som får palliativ vård i hemmet.Metod: Empirisk intervjustudie med en deduktiv kvalitativ ansats, där semistrukturerade frågor utefter intervjuguide användes. Insamlad data analyserades med manifest innehållsanalys.Resultat: Skillnader i upplevelsen mellan roll, relation och bemötande uppfattades då vård av patient bedrevs i hemmet i förhållande till på sjukhus. Klara skillnader av sjuksköterskerollen kunde ses då sjuksköterskan var civilklädd. I relationen till patienten upplevs det mer personlig när sjuksköterskan bjöds in till patienten hem. Bemötandet av patienten i hemmet upplevdes i större utsträckning anpassas efter patienten och dess önskemål, och där respekt för patienten integritet och autonomi låg till grund för vårdens utförande.Slutsats: Sjuksköterskans upplevelse av roll, relation och bemötande av patienten var situationsburen. Resultatet var i övervägande överensstämmande med Orlandos interaktionsprocess då vården bedrevs i patienten hem, dock framkom att användandet av denna process ofta var situationsbunden. / Background: To be cared for at home instead of in hospitals or nursing home becomes more common as the number of hospital beds decreasing and new types of treatments becomes available. This may mean that nurses at some time during their working lives may be required to treat patients in their own home and leave the environment that the nurses are usually used to.Aim: The aim of this study is with the basis of topics: role, relationship and response study nurses' experience of caring for and respond to patients receiving palliative care at home.Method: Empirically structured interview study with a qualitative approach, using semistructured question along with an interviewguide. Collected data was analyzed with manifest content analysis.Results: A difference in experience between role, relationship and response was seen when the patient was conducted in the home, in relation to in a hospital. Clear differences in the experience of nursing role could be seen when the nurses were in civilian clothes. In the relationship to the patient the nurses experienced it more personal when they were invited to the patients home. Response of patients at home felt more tailored to the patient and his wishes, in which respect for patient privacy and autonomy on the basis of care provision.Conclusions: Nurses' experience of role, relationship and response of the patient was bound to the situation. The result was predominantly accordance with Orlandos interactionprocess, when the care was provided in the patients home, it was however revealed that the use of this process was often bound to the situation.

Text in Afrikaans / In this study a description of the development of meaningful alternative constructions has been provided. The development of meaningful alternative descriptions of a painful situation within which people find themselves could create the possibility of movement taking place. · The development of alternative descriptions was discussed by means of the following components of a therapeutic conversation: The therapist uses the different punctuations of the family in their description of the problem and takes complementary descriptions into consideration. (Punctuation/complementation.) In the description of alternative realities the therapist uses a language that creates hope for change. (Reframing.) The therapist listens to the family with respect and endeavours to hear the family's themes, to understand and to use them. (Language.) The therapist, by asking questions of which the answers facilitate further questions, accepts the responsibility to facilitate discussions that encourage participation in the therapeutic process. (Participation/questions leading to further questions.) The discussion was based on a constructivist approach. A case history was described to illustrate how meaningful alternative descriptions were developed in a therapeutic conversation. / In hierdie studie is 'n beskrywing van die ontwikkeling van betekenisvolle alternatiewe konstruksies gegee. Die ontwikkeling van alternatiewe beskrywings vir 'n pynlike situasie waarin mense hulle bevind kan die moontlikheid skep dat beweging plaasvind. Die ontwikkeling van alternatiewe beskrywings word bespreek aan die hand van die volgende vier komponente van 'n terapeutiese gesprek: Die terapeut gebruik die verskillende punktuasies van die gesin in hulle beskrywing van die probleem en neem komplementerende beskrywings in ag. (Punktuasielkomplementering.) In die beskrywing van alternatiewe realiteite gebruik die terapeut 'n taal wat die hoop op verandering skep. (Herformulering.) Die terapeut luister met respek na die gesin, en poog om die gesin se temas aan te hoor, te verstaan en te gebruik. (Taal.) Die terapeut neem, deur vrae te vra waarvan die antwoorde tot verdere vrae aanleiding gee, die verantwoordelikheid op hom om gesprekvoering te fasiliteer wat deelname aan die terapeutiese proses aanmoedig. (Deelname/vrae wat aanleiding gee tot verdere vrae.) Die bespreking is gebaseer op 'n konstruktivistiese benadering. 'n Gevallestudie word beskryf om te illustreer hoe betekenisvolle alternatiewe beskrywings in 'n terapeutiese gesprek ontwikkel is. / M.A. (Social Work)

Notre objectif, tout au long de ce manuscrit, est de proposer une méthodologie d'analyse, de conception et d'évaluation d'applications dédiées à la recherche d'information orientée métier. Le premier chapitre commence par un état de l'art sur la modélisation de la recherche d'information. Dans un second temps, il traite la notion d'interaction homme machine présente au sein de systèmes de recherche d'information. Ce chapitre permet de souligner que le contexte métier n'est pas pris en compte dans la modélisation de la recherche d'information via un système informatisé. Le deuxième chapitre propose une méthodologie d'analyse, de conception et d'évaluation d'Applications dédiées à la Recherche d'information Orientée Métier (AROM). Il traite également de l'intégration du contexte métier via la notion d'ontologie au sein d'un système dédié. Enfin, une confrontation avec un système existant est réalisée dans le but de valider la méthodologie en termes d'évaluation. Le troisième chapitre permet de valider la méthodologie AROM dans la conception d'applications via deux cas d'étude industriels. Nous montrons comment le premier cas d'étude nous a permis d'avoir une réflexion sur le développement de la méthodologie. Grâce à la méthodologie AROM, le second cas d'étude propose une interface innovante en termes de recherche d'information orientée métier. / Our goal is to develop a methodology to analyse, to implement and to evaluate user-trade oriented information retrieval applications.The first chapter begins with a state of the art about information retrieval models. It presents human computer interaction of informatiion retrieval systems. It helps to understand that user trade context has to be dealt of in information retrieval model and especially during the design of dedicated applications.The second chapter is the core of our methodology to analyse, to implement and to evaluate user-trade oriented information retrieval applications. This methodology is called AROM. The chapter explains how to take into account user trade context by integrating an ontology in the dedicated system. The AROM methodoly is compared with an existing system in order to its validation.The third chapter validates the AROM methodology during the design of two industrial case studies. The first case study has been designed during the first steps of the design of the AROM methodology. It helped us understand which concepts were necessary to our methodology. Thanks to our methodology, the second case study has an innovative interface through a user trade oriented information retrieval tool.

Political blogs have emerged as a new journalistic format that has gained influence on the political discourse in the United States. Previous research has shown that this influence stems mainly from attention given to blogs by traditional news media. Based on the concepts of intermedia agenda setting and agenda building, this study explored the source interaction between 10 elite traditional news media and 10 political filter blogs during the 2006 Congressional Midterm Elections. An analysis of 2587 sources used in the election context found that traditional news media frequently cited blogs in their election coverage, but that the source attributions to the blogs were vague. Blogs, on the other hand, heavily cited traditional news media, but the analysis revealed that conservative blogs cited elite traditional news media less than did liberal blogs. Conservative blogs relied more on conservative media outlets in their election coverage. A case study of the dominant election topic, the Mark Foley scandal, showed that the daily interaction between the two media formats was driven by the use of breaking news elements as well as controversial opinions. The findings of this study show that the blog agenda is strongly influenced by traditional news media sources and that blogs at the same time have become part of the routine newsgathering process of traditional news media journalists. However, the findings also raise questions about changes in the standard journalistic research and attribution procedures as both media formats often rely on each other as sources rather than on original reporting.

Text in Afrikaans / In this study a description of the development of meaningful alternative constructions has been provided. The development of meaningful alternative descriptions of a painful situation within which people find themselves could create the possibility of movement taking place. · The development of alternative descriptions was discussed by means of the following components of a therapeutic conversation: The therapist uses the different punctuations of the family in their description of the problem and takes complementary descriptions into consideration. (Punctuation/complementation.) In the description of alternative realities the therapist uses a language that creates hope for change. (Reframing.) The therapist listens to the family with respect and endeavours to hear the family's themes, to understand and to use them. (Language.) The therapist, by asking questions of which the answers facilitate further questions, accepts the responsibility to facilitate discussions that encourage participation in the therapeutic process. (Participation/questions leading to further questions.) The discussion was based on a constructivist approach. A case history was described to illustrate how meaningful alternative descriptions were developed in a therapeutic conversation. / In hierdie studie is 'n beskrywing van die ontwikkeling van betekenisvolle alternatiewe konstruksies gegee. Die ontwikkeling van alternatiewe beskrywings vir 'n pynlike situasie waarin mense hulle bevind kan die moontlikheid skep dat beweging plaasvind. Die ontwikkeling van alternatiewe beskrywings word bespreek aan die hand van die volgende vier komponente van 'n terapeutiese gesprek: Die terapeut gebruik die verskillende punktuasies van die gesin in hulle beskrywing van die probleem en neem komplementerende beskrywings in ag. (Punktuasielkomplementering.) In die beskrywing van alternatiewe realiteite gebruik die terapeut 'n taal wat die hoop op verandering skep. (Herformulering.) Die terapeut luister met respek na die gesin, en poog om die gesin se temas aan te hoor, te verstaan en te gebruik. (Taal.) Die terapeut neem, deur vrae te vra waarvan die antwoorde tot verdere vrae aanleiding gee, die verantwoordelikheid op hom om gesprekvoering te fasiliteer wat deelname aan die terapeutiese proses aanmoedig. (Deelname/vrae wat aanleiding gee tot verdere vrae.) Die bespreking is gebaseer op 'n konstruktivistiese benadering. 'n Gevallestudie word beskryf om te illustreer hoe betekenisvolle alternatiewe beskrywings in 'n terapeutiese gesprek ontwikkel is. / M.A. (Social Work)

Perfect simulations are methods, which convert suitable Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms into algorithms which return exact draws from the target distribution, instead of approximations based on long-time convergence to equilibrium. In recent years a lot of various perfect simulation algorithms were developed. This work provides a unified exposition of some perfect simulation algorithms with applications to spatial point processes, especially to the Strauss process and area-interaction process. Described algorithms and their properties are compared theoretically and also by a simulation study.