The purpose of the proposed study is to examine the relationships among the strength of college students’ religious faith and positive coping behaviors (religious and non-religious) and their subsequent effects on physical and psychological well-being, perceived stress, and life satisfaction. Research has shown strength of faith to be positively associated with both mental health and life satisfaction, which in turn, are often related to better health (Larson et al., 1992; Ellison, 1991). Positive religious and non-religious coping behaviors have also been shown to have similar relationships with the aforementioned outcomes (Koenig et al., 2001). The potential mediating relationships between the variables will be tested with the multiple regression methods outlined by Baron and Kenny (1986). / text

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This project suggests a method of conflict analysis, anchored in Bourdieu's social theory, that weds approaches within sociological, political, and international relations theory. I focus on the contemporary conflict between the French state, and the substantial population considered "foreign" within France. This tension has regularly exploded into physical confrontation, most notably in the fall of 2005, though violence has been a persistent feature of the urban periphery for more than two decades. Moreover, tensions within France have often been co-opted into a larger "East vs. West" discourse, and this complex relationship is folded into an international conflict to which it may not belong. With this in mind, the project undertakes a thorough analysis of these complexities as they exist in France, proposing finally a means of transforming the conflict from violent to non-violent through a new theory of mediation.

Šiame darbe kalbama apie klasikinės graikų filosofijos mąstymo opozicijų (subjektas vs objektas, referentinė tikrovė vs autoreferentyvumas, idėjos vs materija) mediaciją Jono Meko filme „Zefiro Torna, arba vaizdai iš Jurgio Mačiūno gyvenimo”.1 Darbo įvade apibrėžiama mediacijos sąvoka, remiantis Claude’o Levi-Strausso teorija apie priešpriešų mediaciją mituose. Teorinėje darbo dalyje nagrinėjamas poetinės kino funkcijos, kino montažo ir estezės kaip mediatorių vaidmuo. Tiriamojoje dalyje subjekto ir objekto opozicija analizuojama, siekiant suprasti, kaip subjektyvus J.Meko filmo suvokėjas įsitraukia į objektyvizuotą kultūrą ir kaip pats „Zefiro Torna” iš objektyvaus kūrinio virsta J.Meko subjektyvumo rezultatu. Darbe nagrinėjama referentinės tikrovės ir autoreferentyvumo opozicija. Autoreferentyvumas analizuojamas pasitelkiant semiotinę diskursyvinio lygmens analizę. Trečiajame tiriamosios dalies skyriuje tęsiama semiotinė diskurso analizė, tačiau susitelkiama jau ties naratyviniu lygmeniu. Darbo „Zefiro Torna” yra autoreferentyvus kūrinys, sutampantis su J.Mačiūno realiu gyvenimu – Fluxus. Jutimams šis fenomenas prieinamas per specifinius J.Meko filmo efektus – blykstelėjimus ir tamsos pauzes. Būtent tai leidžia teigti, kad „Zefiro Torna” – su esteze (pertrūkių grandine) susijęs kūrinys. Estezė suprantama kaip tiesos, grožio bei gėrio ir jų priešingybių junginys. / This work speaks about oppositions of Greek classical philosophical thinking (subject vs object, referentivity vs autoreferentivity, idea vs matter) mediation in the film of Jonas Mekas „Zefiro Torna“. The introduction of the work defines the concept of mediation, which is based on Claude Levi-Strauss' theory about mediation of the opposites in myths. Theoretical part of the work analyses what role poetical function, original film montage and esthesis play as mediators. The practical part analyses the opposition of subject and object in order to understand how the subjective comprehender of Jonas Mekas film becomes involved in objective culture and how „Zefiro Torna“ itself from objective creation becomes the result of J. Mekas subjectivity. There is also the analysis of referentivity and autoreferentivity opposition in J. Mekas film. The latter is analysed invoking the semiotic analysis of discourse level. Third part of practical analysis proceeds on semiotic discourse analysis, but concentrates on narrative level. The work concludes, that „Zefiro Torna“ is an artwork which embraces the real life of Jurgis Mačiūnas - „Fluxus“. This phenomena becomes perceptible for us through specific J. Mekas film effects – light flashes and pauses of darkness. These effects especially enforce us to conclude that „Zefiro Torna“ is the creation bound to esthesis (chain of interruptions). Esthesis is understood as an overarching combination of Greek classical philosophy concepts of beauty... [to full text]

Konfidencialumas – tai svarbiausias mediacijos proceso bruožas, išskiriantis mediaciją iš kitų ginčų sprendimo procedūrų. Egzistuoja bendra taisyklė, kad visa rašytinė ir žodinė informacija atskleista mediacijos metu laikoma konfidencialia. Ginčo šalys, mediatoriai ir kiti mediacijos dalyviai įpareigojami laikyti paslaptyje ir neatskleisti informacijos susijusios su mediacija. Sėkminga mediacija paremta šalių pasitikėjimu bei atvirumu. Ginčo šalis nebijos atskleisti informacijos tik tuomet kai žinos, kad ta informacija nebus panaudota prieš ją pačią vėlesniame teismo ar arbitražo procese. Konfidencialumas skatina mediacijos proceso efektyvumą bei užtikrina mediatoriaus neutralumo ir nešališkumo reikalavimus. Europos Sąjungos institucijos įvertino mediacijos svarbą siekiant vieno iš pagrindinių ES politinių tikslų – teismų prieinamumo didinimo. Mediacija kaip neteisminė taikaus ginčų sureguliavimo procedūra gali perimti dalį ginčų ir taip tiesiogiai prisidėti prie teismų prieinamumo didinimo. ES institucijos priėmė eilę teisinių instrumentų - kaip Žalioji knyga, Europos mediatorių elgesio kodeksas, Europos Parlamento ir Tarybos Direktyva 2008/52/EB dėl tam tikrų mediacijos civilinėse ir komercinėse bylose aspektų – kurių tikslas paskatinti bei suvienodinti mediacijos taikymą ES valstybėse narėse. Direktyva pabrėžia konfidencialumo svarbą mediacijoje ir nustato minimalius standartus užtikrinančius konfidencialumo apsaugą. Lietuva iki 2011 m. privalės tinkamai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Modern Western states declaring the right to fair and speedy trial have faced serious obstacles while implementing it. The judicial procedure is suffering from severe caseload leading to a substantial delay and increasing costs in litigation. The situation resulted in growing public dissatisfaction with the formal court system and a justice as a whole. This encouraged the states to look for new dispute resolution mechanisms which could be alternative to litigation and could overtake certain disputes from courts leaving access to justice more available. In 1950’s USA introduced mediation in solving labor disputes. It showed a success and gained the support of legislation and judiciary which led to wide spread of mediation to other areas of dispute resolution: small claims, neighborhood, consumer, landlord-tenant, victim-offender, family, environmental disputes. Mediation can offer a cheaper, faster, less formal procedure compared to litigation. Mediation leaves the ultimate decision making process in the hands of the parties themselves. The third neutral person is only assisting the parties in developing the dialogue and reaching a mutually acceptable settlement of issues in dispute. This voluntarily reached settlement diminishes the friction between adverse parties, helps to maintain further amicable relations between parties and preserve the social peace and harmony. Confidentiality is regarded as a fundamental feature to effective mediation. It encourages candid and free... [to full text]

Magistro baigiamasis darbas skirtas apžvelgti vienai iš civilinių ginčų sprendimo procedūrai – taikinamajam tarpininkavimui. Darbe apžvelgiamas bei analizuojamas taikinamojo tarpininkavimo teisinis reglamentavimas, šios procedūros taikymo civiliniuose ginčuose pagrindiniai privalumai, trūkumai, principai, dabartinė tarpininkavimo teisinė ir praktinė aplinka. Lietuvoje taikinamojo tarpininkavimo procedūra įtvirtinta 2008 m. priėmus Lietuvos Respublikos civilinių ginčų taikinamojo tarpininkavimo įstatymą. Darbe analizuotos šio įstatymo nuostatos, kiti tarpininkavimą reglamentuojantys teisės aktai, teorija ir praktika. Analizės pagrindu pateikiamos išvados ir pasiūlymai. Darbas naudingas tuo, kad jame pateikiama civilinių ginčų taikinamojo tarpininkavimo sampratą formuojantys elementai: apžvelgiama teisės aktuose naudojama terminologija, suformuluojami taikinamojo tarpininkavimo tikslai, nustatomi pagrindiniai privalumai ir trūkumai. Remiantis šiuo darbu galima toliau tęsti tyrimus apie taikinamojo tarpininkavimo procedūros reglamentavimą, efektyvumo didinimą, Teisminės mediacijos Lietuvoje tobulinimą, platesnį tarpininkavimo taikymą civilinių ginčų sprendime. / Master's final thesis dedicated for an overview of one of the civil dispute resolution procedure - conciliatory mediation. The thesis provides an overview and analysis of the conciliatory mediation legal regulation, main advantages and disadvantages of this procedure in civil disputes, the principles of mediation, current legal and practical environment. The procedure of conciliatory mediation established in 2008 by adoption the Law of Republic of Lithuania on Conciliatory Mediation of Civil Disputes. The provisions of the law, other legislation, theory and practice are analyzed in this thesis. There are conclusions and suggestions provided according to analysis. This thesis is useful because it provides conciliatory mediation of civil disputes concept-forming elements: an overview of the terminology used in legislation, the framing of the conciliatory mediation objectives, identified main advantages and disadvantages. Following to this thesis, there are possible to continue research on the conciliatory mediation procedure regulation, efficiency, improvement of Court mediation in Lithuania and a wider application of mediation in civil disputes resolution.

The aim of this thesis is to study preschool-teachers’ experiences from using the computer tablet as a tool for learning and teaching, in order to gain knowledge of how the integrational process of information and communications technology (ICT) in preschool has progressed since its instatement. The background that caused interest to make this study was the rapid progression of the use of ICT-tools in childrens’ everyday lives and the troubles that have surrounded the process of integrating these tools into preschool-practices. The theoretical basis for the analysis of the research lies within the socio-cultural perspective. The methods used to gather empirical data were discussions held in focus-groups consisting of teachers from three different preschools in Sweden where the theme of the discussions were computer tablets. In accordance with a socio-cultural approach to verbal communication as data the discussions were seen as socially situated practices. The results of this study were that tablets were only in part integrated with school-activities as they were well used for by the pedagogues for purposes such as organizing, documentation and communication but not as well used among the children due to different circumstances. Another finding of the study was that teachers find that they often lack the ICT-competences required to develop good learning situations and conditions for their students with the computer tablets. Based on the teachers’ testimonies not only is there a need for in-service training for teachers but perhaps also necessary to provide teachers with further direction for work with computer tablets, how they should be used and the extent of their role within preschool settings.

The creation of durable peace following armed conflicts has been widely researched from a variety of perspectives. There is much less research, however, concerning when and why mediation can produce durable peace because most mediation research focuses on achieving a short-term success as indicated by the creation of a new peace agreement. This is an exploratory study which examines several factors considered to be important for the creation of durable peace. This study finds that the two most important factors are the power dynamics between the parties and the management of spoilers. Moreover, this study finds that these two factors are interlinked inasmuch that changes to the parties' levels of power can facilitate the emergence of spoilers. These findings are based on the systematic examination of mediation in four cases of armed conflict by utilizing a modified contingency model of mediation which is tested against the mediations conducted in the 1973 Egyptian-Israeli war, the Bosnian war, the third Angolan war, and the first Chechen war. This study argues that a well-designed agreement can shift the power dynamics between the parties so that their struggle for power will not take violent forms, and it can help prevent the emergence of new spoilers because it does not favor one party more than the other. Well designed agreements can be created even when the balance of power between the parties is unequal, and efforts to further weaken the already weaker party should be avoided because it can contribute to the emergence of spoilers from within the disputing parties. An original model for durable peace which accounts for these new findings is then developed. This model argues that to create durable peace mediators must produce good agreements that are balanced and channel the struggle for power into nonviolent mechanisms and processes, and manage the spoilers who threaten the peace.

Context: There is continuous growth in data generation due to wide usage of modern communication systems. Systems have to be designed which can handle the processing of these data volumes efficiently. Mediation systems are meant to serve this purpose. Databases form an integral part of the mediation systems. Suitability of the databases for such systems is the principle theme of this work. Objectives: The objective of this thesis is to identify the key requirements for databases that can be used as part of Mediation systems, gain a thorough understanding of various features, the data models commonly used in databases and to benchmark their performance. Methods: Previous work that has been carried out on various databases is studied as a part of literature review. Test bed is set up as a part of experiment and performance metrics such as throughput and total time taken were measured through a Java based client. Thorough analysis has been carried out by varying various parameters like data volumes, number of threads in the client etc. Results: Cassandra has a very good write performance for event and batch operations. Cassandra has a slightly better read performance when compared to MySQL Cluster but this differentiation withers out in case of fewer number of threads in the client. Conclusions: On evaluation of MySQL Cluster and Cassandra we conclude that they have several features that are suitable for mediation systems. On the other hand, Cassandra does not guarantee ACID transactions while MySQL Cluster has good support. There is need for further evaluation on new generation databases which are not mature enough as of now.

This paper is a critical evaluation of the Swedish system with special mediation. The district court has the opportunity, in cases that are amenable to out-of-court settlements, to refer the dispute to special mediation. However, this is extremely rare, even though the legislature expressed a desire to increase the use of alternative dispute resolution. In 2011, a series of measures were taken to increase the use of mediation and strengthen mediation attractiveness. What effect can be inferred from these actions today, over three years after their introduction? This study analyses the main reasons offered for why mediation is not used more, and what should be done to increase the use of mediation. Is the court-annexed mediation an appropriate way forward for Sweden? To answer these problem formulations I studied statistics from the Swedish National Courts Administration (Domstolsverket). In order to investigate how the Swedish mediators experience the practice, I did a survey that was sent to the mediators listed on the Swedish National Courts Administration´s catalogue on mediators. To deepen the knowledge of mediation as a practice and get a perspective on the special court mediation, I conducted an in-depth interview with Nicklas Söderberg, Head of Administration of the Court of Appeal in Skåne and Blekinge. My material shows that the Court's duty to promote conciliation was strengthened by the government's measures in 2011. However, the Mediation Act (Lag om medling i privaträttsliga tvister), according to the material, did not have the intended impact on the use of mediation; special mediation is very rarely used. The reason to the meagre effects is that the measures do not address the three largest mediation hindering factors; regulatory barriers, cost considerations and lack of knowledge and foundation in the Swedish legal culture. To increase the use of mediation and reach all of its benefits, I believe, in the light of the material in this paper, a new system that addresses the needs of those hindering factors is necessary. The legislation provides opportunity for broad discussions with the parties during the initial Court preparations. However, the process could be more clear, effective and legally certain by developing Court-annexed mediation. Court-annexed mediation can reduce the courts caseload, save time for the parties and provide more sustainable and appropriate solutions to the parties' disputes. To anchor mediation in Swedish legal culture and increase the use of the procedure, I advocate that Court-annexed mediation should be introduced. / Denna uppsats är en kritisk utvärdering av det svenska systemet med särskild medling. Tingsrätten har möjlighet att i dispositiva tvistemål hänvisa tvisten till särskild medling. Detta sker dock ytterst sällan, trots att lagstiftaren uttalat en vilja att öka användandet av alternativa tvistlösningsmetoder. År 2011 genomfördes en rad åtgärder för att öka användningen av medling samt stärka medlingens attraktionskraft. Vilken effekt kan utläsas av dessa åtgärder idag, drygt tre år efter deras införande? I denna uppsats utreds vilka huvudanledningar som finns till varför särskild medling inte används mer, samt vad som bör göras för att komma tillrätta med detta. Är rättsmedling en lämplig väg framåt för Sverige? För att svara på dessa problemformuleringar studerades statistik från domstolsverket. För att undersöka hur svenska medlare upplever förfarandet gjorde jag en enkätundersökning som skickades till medlare upptagna på domstolsverkets förteckning över medlare. För att fördjupa kunskapen om medling i praktiken och få ett domstolsperspektiv på särskild medling genomförde jag en djupintervju med Nicklas Söderberg, administrativ chef för hovrätten i Skåne och Blekinge. Mitt material visar att rättens skyldighet att verka för förlikning stärkts av regeringens åtgärder år 2011. Medlingslagen har dock, enligt materialet, inte haft avsedd inverkan på användandet av medling; särskild medling används mycket sällan. Anledningen till att effekterna uteblivit är att åtgärderna inte adresserar de tre största medlingshämmande faktorerna; lagstiftningsmässiga hinder, kostnadsaspekter samt brist på kunskap och förankring i svensk rättskultur.  För att öka användningen av medling och nå alla dess fördelar anser jag, mot bakgrund av materialet i denna uppsats, att en ny ordning måste till som adresserar dessa medlingshämmande faktorer. Lagstiftningen ger utrymme för att hålla breda samtal med parterna under förberedelsen, dock skulle förfarandet bli tydligare, mer ändamålsenligt och rättssäkert genom att utforma en lagstiftning gällande rättsmedling.  Rättsmedling kan avlasta domstolarna, spara tid för parterna samt ge mer hållbara och ändamålsenliga lösningar på parternas tvister. För att förankra medlingen i svensk rättskultur och öka användandet av förfarandet förespråkar jag att rättsmedling borde införas.