This thesis examines the effects of the so-called Hartz IV reform on the German labour market development, with special emphasis on unemployment reduction. To determine the causal link, a variety of tools are used, namely macroeconomic studies, worker flow analysis, surveys and comparison with competing arguments. Preponderance of evidence suggests, that Hartz IV played a significant role in unemployment rate reduction in the period following its implementation. Size of this effects is hard to discern exactly, but an estimate in the range of 1,5-2 percentage points should be quite accurate. Contrary to popular belief, this reduction did not occur to the detriment of general job quality, such as by splitting of old jobs or by dilution of their working hours. Furthermore, the issue of relative poverty is investigated. The thesis concludes that the increase in relative poverty was not caused primarily by Hartz IV, nor is it a good measure of actual living standard. The increase seems to be to a large degree driven by demographic changes, mainly the decreasing size of German households.

The ceiling and basal rules of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV; Wechsler, 2008) only function as intended if subtest items proceed in order of difficulty. While many aspects of the WAIS-IV have been researched, there is no literature about subtest item difficulty and precise item difficulty values are not available. The WAIS-IV was developed within the framework of Classical Test Theory (CTT) and item difficulty was most often determined using p-values. One limitation of this method is that item difficulty values are sample dependent. Both standard error of measurement, an important indicator of reliability, and p-values change when the sample changes. A different framework within which psychological tests can be created, analyzed and refined is called Item Response Theory (IRT). IRT places items and person ability onto the same scale using linear transformations and links item difficulty level to person ability. As a result, IRT is said to be produce sample-independent statistics. Rasch modeling, a form of IRT, is one parameter logistic model that is appropriate for items with only two response options and assumes that the only factors affecting test performance are characteristics of items, such as their difficulty level or their relationship to the construct being measured by the test, and characteristics of participants, such as their ability levels. The partial credit model is similar to the standard dichotomous Rasch model, except that it is appropriate for items with more than two response options. Proponents of standard dichotomous Rasch model argue that it has distinct advantages above both CTT-based methods as well as other IRT models (Bond & Fox, 2007; Embretson & Reise, 2000; Furr & Bacharach, 2013; Hambleton & Jones, 1993) because of the principle of monotonicity, also referred to as specific objectivity, the principle of additivity or double cancellation, which “establishes that two parameters are additively related to a third variable” (Embretson & Reise, 2000, p. 148). In other words, because of the principle of monotonicity, in Rasch modeling, probability of correctly answering an item is the additive function of individuals’ ability, or trait level, and the item’s degree of difficulty. As ability increases, so does an individual’s probability of answering that item. Because only item difficulty and person ability affect an individual’s chance of correctly answering an item, inter-individual comparisons can be made even if individuals did not receive identical items or items of the same difficulty level. This is why Rasch modeling is referred to as a test-free measurement. The purpose of this study was to apply a standard dichotomous Rasch model or partial credit model to the individual items of seven core perceptual, verbal and working memory subtests of the WAIS-IV: Block Design, Matrix Reasoning, Visual Puzzles, Similarities, Vocabulary, Information, Arithmetic Digits Forward, Digits Backward and Digit Sequencing. Results revealed that WAIS-IV subtests fall into one of three categories: optimally ordered, near optimally ordered and sub-optimally ordered. Optimally ordered subtests, Digits Forward and Digits Backward, had no disordered items. Near optimally ordered subtests were those with one to three disordered items and included Digit Sequencing, Arithmetic, Similarities and Block Design. Sub-optimally ordered subtests consisted of Matrix Reasoning, Visual Puzzles, Information and Vocabulary, with the number of disordered items ranging from six to 16. Two major implications of the result of this study were considered: the impact on individuals’ scores and the impact on overall test administration time. While the number of disordered items ranged from 0 to 16, the overall impact on raw scores was deemed minimal. Because of where the disordered items occur in the subtest, most individuals are administered all the items that they would be expected to answer correctly. A one-point reduction in any one subtest is unlikely to significantly affect overall index scores, which are the scores most commonly interpreted in the WAIS-IV. However, if an individual received a one-point reduction across all subtests, this may have a more noticeable impact on index scores. In cases where individuals discontinue before having a chance to answer items that were easier, clinicians may consider testing the limits. While this would have no impact on raw scores, it may provide clinicians with a better understanding of individuals’ true abilities. Based on the findings of this study, clinicians may consider administering only certain items in order to test the limits, based on the items’ difficulty value. This study found that the start point for most subtests is too easy for most individuals. For some subtests, most individuals may be administered more than 10 items that are too easy for them. Other than increasing overall administration time, it is not clear what impact, of any, this has. However, it does suggest the need to reevaluate current start items so that they are the true basal for most people. Future studies should break standard test administration by ignoring basal and ceiling rules to collect data on more items. In order to help clarify why some items are more or less difficult than would be expected given their ordinal rank, future studies should include a qualitative aspect, where, after each subtest, individuals are asked describe what they found easy and difficult about each item. Finally, future research should examine the effects of item ordering on participant performance. While this study revealed that only minimal reductions in index scores likely result from the prematurely stopping test administration, it is not known if disordering has other impacts on performance, perhaps by increasing or decreasing an individual’s confidence.

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Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a central nosocomial pathogen that can infect any tissue in the human body. A two-component system in P. aeruginosa that regulates many virulence factors is the AlgZ/R system. A previously unidentified regulator of algZ, that does not affect algR, has been identified via transposon mutagenesis, ‘PA2771’. The mechanism of regulation has not been previously studied, and novel evidence of PA2771 functioning as a diguanyalate cyclase was observed. When PA2771 is active, cyclic di-GMP levels are high, promoting the upregulation of the fimU operon and Type VI pili. In the PA2771 mutant, an upregulation in the expression of the flagellar genes and swarming phenotype was observed, and restored via complementation. PA2771's function in regulating algZ expression, is likely indirect and alters virulence gene regulation and phenotypic outputs in P. aeruginosa in the switch between twitching and swimming motility, and appears to be specific to PA2771.

This study presented the past, current, and proposed practice of intelligence testing with a unique population, students identified as deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH). As a basis for describing the cognitive ability of Utah's D/HH students and to improve practice guidelines, 61 D/HH students served by Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (USDB) were administered the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT) standard battery and the Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV). Based on these data, composite score distributions were described and compared with national standardization samples. Participants' WISC-IV PRI scores are summarized with the following descriptive statistics: M = 88.95, 11.05 points below the standardization sample's mean; SD = 14.55; skew = -.74; and SE = .31. Comparing the USDB D/HH sample's WISC-IV PRI scores with the WISC-IV standardization sample's distribution of scores, the participants' scores were significantly lower (two-tailed p-value of <.0001). Participants' UNIT Standard Battery Composite scores are summarized with the following descriptive statistics: M = 90.74, 9.26 points less than the standardization sample's mean; SD = 13.97; skew = -.55; and SE = .31. Comparing this sample's UNIT composite scores with the standardization sample, the participants' scores were significantly lower (two-tailed p-value of <.0001). Additionally, a Pearson correlation compared each participant's scores on the WISC-IV PRI with the corresponding score on the UNIT Standard Battery Composite, yielding a correlation coefficient of .75 with a two-tailed p-value < .0001. Recommendations for future guidelines regarding cognitive assessment of Utah's D/HH students are presented. In particular, this research supported administering the UNIT rather than the WISC-IV. Though no assessment is language free, the UNIT's administration uses simple gestures for directions, rather than spoken language. Additionally, D/HH students were included in the standardization sample. Furthermore, administering one assessment, rather than several, consumes less time for the examiner and the student, saving money and decreasing student time away from classroom instruction.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore pupils' motivation for participating in Physical Education. The thesis also investigates the definitions of sport and health and to what extent pupils make any connection between the school subject physical education and their own physical and health status. A semi-structured interview was carried out with thirteen upper secondary school pupils with special needs on the Individual Programme. The interviews were recorded digitally and then analyzed. The results show that there is no unified definition of the school subject among the pupils. The pupils express neither any clear definition of health nor any connection between activities at school and their own physical condition or their health. It is also shown that no intrinsic motivation for participating is expressed, while amotivation and different kinds of extrinsic motivation are present. The results indicate the need of a mutual definition of what is going on at physical education lessons and what the aims are. The importance of teachers' competence, especially when working with pupils with special needs, is pointed out, and further research focusing motivation among these pupils is suggested.

In the United States, rapid military mobilization for the world wars marked a turning point in the national need to manage and evaluate manpower. To orchestrate manpower needs for the military, industry, and those relating to familial obligations, Woodrow Wilson's administration created the Selective Service System during the First World War. In categorizing men, local Selective Service boards utilized rapid physical and psychological diagnostic techniques and applied their assessments to current military branch induction standards to pronounce candidates as militarily fit or unfit. From World War I to World War II, the Selective Service System expanded as a bureaucracy but did not adequately address induction issues surrounding rapidly changing standards, racism, and inconsistent testing procedures. These persistent problems with Selective Service prevented the system from becoming truly consistent, fair, or effective. As a result of Selective Service System, War Department, and military branch standards, military rejection and prematurely military discharge rates increased in World War II. Additionally, though Selective Service did not accurately predict who would or would not serve effectively, rejected and prematurely discharged men faced harsh discrimination on the American home front during World War II.

This thesis is based on comparing two different air-ventilation systems with cooling in a building. Two systems are compared, the first one is FTX with heat pump and a rotating heat exchanger, and the second is a system with sorptive cooling. These systems use different types of energy – electricity and district heating for both cooling and heating. The FTX system (FTX 480) is produced from IV product and the system with sorptive cooling (DCI 3.0) is given from the company Munters. An FTX system recycles heat using a heat exchanger. Sorptive cooling is a technique that lowers the temperature by using district heating which cools the warm air coming from outside. The purpose is to study how effective these systems are looking at the costs of the systems and how they impact the climate. This is done by a life cycle cost analysis and a environmental implant analysis. This thesis is guided and has been given documentation by Statens fastighetsverk. The building that is mentioned in this study is Afrikahuset that is located in Uppsala. Product sheets for the systems have been produced and given by the companies IV product and Munters. Results show that system FTX 480 gives a lower cost and a lower climate effect compared to DCI 3.0 (sorptive cooling). Therefore, FTX 480 has the lowest total cost during the systems lifecycle, provides the lowest energy use on an annual basis and provides the best financial outcome over a 30-year time. In conclusion, a FTX system with heat pump and rotating heat pump is more useful than a system with sorptive cooling. / Examensarbetet jämför två olika ventilationsaggregat med olika metoder för luftburen kyla på en befintlig byggnad. Aggregaten ett från- och tilluftssystem (FTX) med värmepump och roterande värmeväxlare samt ett med Sorptiv kyla. Systemen använder olika energislag – el respektive fjärrvärme för både kyla och eftervärmning. Ett FTX aggregat återvinner värme i första hand med hjälp av en värmeväxlare och värmepump vid låga utetemperaturer, värmepumpen kan sedan användas för att kyla luften sommartid. Sorptiv teknik däremot återvinner även värmen med en värmeväxlare men kyler luften med hjälp av fjärrvärme i sekvens med befuktning och avtorkning. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka hur ekonomiskt och hållbart dessa system är genom att analysera det ekonomiska utfallet samt klimatpåverkan hos båda systemen genom en livscykelkostnadsanalys och miljöpåverkansanalys. Undersökningen utförs med hjälp och underlag från Statens fastighetsverk. Den befintliga byggnaden är Afrikahuset, en utbildning- och forskningsverksamhet i Uppsala. Produktblad har tagits fram från företagen IV produkt samt Munters. En värdering av el och fjärrvärme resulterar i att en minskad elanvändning bidrar till en mer reducerad klimatpåverkan jämfört med fjärrvärme och att 90 procent av den energi som tillförs är återvunnen energi samt att fjärrvärmen normalt är dyrast. Det finns fördelar med värmedriven kyla då det råder stort värmeöverskott i kraftvärmeverken under sommarperioden vilket är bl.a. som en följd av elproduktionen. Studien visar att ett FTX system med värmepump och roterande värmeväxlare är mer ekonomiskt lönsamt (LCC) och bidrar till en mer positiv miljöpåverkan (LCA). Slutsatsen är att system FTX 480 har lägst totalkostnad under dess livstid, ger lägst klimatpåverkan på årlig basis och ger bäst ekonomiskt utfall unde

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