Bakgrund: "The Immigrant Health Paradox" indikerar att invandrade från ofta upplever en bättre psykisk hälsa i jämförelse med majoritetsbefolkningen, trots nackdelar som en lägre social status. Syfte: Studien syftade till att testa skillnader i internaliserade symptom och familjerelationer hos unga med svensk och utländsk bakgrund. Studien testade om en högre grad av emotionellt stöd, familjesammanhållning och akademiskt stöd kunde förklara skillnader i internaliserade symptom hos första och andra generationens invandrade från icke-väst och väst samt majoritetsbefolkningens unga. Även kön, föräldrarnas utbildningsbakgrund samt familjestruktur testades. Metod: Studien utgick från en kvantitativ ansats och statistiska analyser genomfördes med one-way anova samt multivariata regressionsanalyser. Data: Studien baserades på n=4344 svenska skolelever i årskurs 8, med en medelålder på 14,65 år. Data hämtades från första vågen (2010/2011) av "Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries" (CILS4EU) som är baserad på 251 svenska skolor. Resultat: Resultaten visade vissa skillnader i internaliserade symptom och familjerelationer hos invandrade unga och majoritetsbefolkningens unga. Invandrade från icke-väst och andra generationen från väst rapporterade en lägre grad av internaliserade symptom i jämförelse med majoritetsbefolkningen, som delvis kunde förklaras av bättre emotionellt stöd samt familjesammanhållning och en intakt familjestruktur. En lägre grad av internaliserade symptom hos första generationen i jämförelse med andra generationen kunde inte urskiljas. Slutsats: Paradoxen kunde delvis bekräftas hos skolelever i Sverige genom en bättre psykisk hälsa hos invandrade unga från icke-väst och andra generationen från väst i jämförelse med majoritetsbefolkningen, som kunde förklaras av kvalitativt bättre familjerelationer hos invandrade unga.

Το παράδοξο Banach-Tarski είναι ένα εντυπωσιακό θεώρημα των καθαρών μαθηματικών που αποδείχθηκε απο τους Πολωνούς μαθηματικούς Banach και Tarski το 1924. Το θεώρημα αυτό λέει ότι μπορούμε να διαμέρισουμε οποιαδήποτε τρισδιάστατη ευκλείδεια μπάλα σε πεπερασμένα το πλήθος κομμάτια και έπειτα απο περιστροφές και μεταφορές αυτών των κομματιών να σχηματίσουμε δύο μπάλες οι οποίες είναι πανομοιότυπες με την αρχική. Το αποτέλεσμα αυτό έχει χαρακτηριστεί ως παράδοξο ακριβώς επειδή είναι ενάντιο στις διαισθήσεις μας. Για την απόδειξη του χρησιμοποιείται ουσιωδώς το Αξίωμα της Επιλογής απο τη Θεωρία Συνόλων, το πλέον επίμαχο αξίωμα της Συνολοθεωρίας. / The Banach-Tarski paradox is a striking theorem of pure mathematics proved by Polish mathematicians Banach and Tarski in 1924. This theorem states that there exists a decomposition of the three-dimensional Euclidean ball in a finite number of non-overlapping pieces, which can then be put back together in a different way to yield two identical copies of the original ball. This result has been described as a paradox precisely because it is highly anti-intuitive. To prove this theorem one must appeal to a set theoretic axiom, the Axiom of Choice, the most controversial axiom of Set theory.

Šiame darbe „Subjektyvybė anapus etikos: S. Kierkegaardas“ autorius pamėgins aptarti individo, atsidūrusio anapus etikos, būties fenomeną. Mes gyvename pasaulyje, vadovaudamiesi ir laikydamiesi tam tikrų nustatytų normų, taisyklių, reikalavimų, kurie reglamentuoja žmonių bendrabūvį. Kitais žodžiais tariant, individo santykį su kitais žmonėmis ir pasauliu reglamentuoja etika. Etika yra žmonių socialinių santykių stabilumo, harmonijos ir tvarkos garantas. Tačiau pastebime, kad dažnai yra kalbama, kad vienas ar kitas žmogus pasielgė neetiškai. Arba žmogus susiduria su tokiomis ribinėmis situacijomis, kuomet pasiremti etika arba elgtis etiškai nebegali. Tai reiškia, kad žmoguje glūdi kažkokios tai jėgos, kurios neleidžia individui būti „išverstam“ į „etikos kalbą“, jėgos, kurios laiko individą ne-etikos arba anapus etikos plotmės. Taigi šitų klausimų ir problemų sprendimo būdų bus pamėginta ieškoti šiame darbe, nuolatos remiantis S. Kierkegaardu. / In the work "Subjectivity beyond ethics: S. Kierkegaard" it is trying to describe the individual who has fallen out beyond ethics and his phenomenon of being. We live in the world having some common norms, rules, requirements, that regulate the common being of people. In other words, the relationship of individual with other people and the world is regulated by ethics. Ethics is the ensurance of people's stability, harmony and order. But we notice, that it is often spoken, that one or another man behaves not ethically. That means, that a man possesses powers, that don't allow for individuality to be "translated" into ethical language. These powers keep the individual not in the ethics, but behind ethical sphere. So, these problems and questions are trying to solve in this work, all the time refering to the philosophy of Kierkegaard.

My research focuses on the experience of policy development and implementation. It draws on my involvement in a government policy taskforce, the development of an organisation’s strategy to the taskforce’s recommendations and the commissioning of frontline services. The research material is my personal experience contained in a number of narrative accounts of important happenings. These are then used as a basis to engage with literature and conversation with practitioners, academics and fellow researchers. It is from this iterative process that the argument develops. The approach is therefore qualitative and reflexive in nature. I have argued against the traditional separation between the content of research and methodology. This is on the basis that human experience does not distinguish between the two as we make sense of new emerging situations. The research has been heavily influenced by analogies drawn from complexity sciences as a way of increasing our understanding of ongoing human interaction, namely complex responsive processes of relating (Stacey et al, 2000). By paying careful attention to the experience of policy development and implementation over an extended period of time I am illuminating that the development of policy can often be seen in literature and in the techniques people use as an activity that is isolated from the work of frontline staff. For example, a policy group is formed, policy or a strategy is drafted and the work is then seen to be done. This can be demonstrated by paying attention to the modus operandi of how policy and strategy groups work and how performance criteria are established. When it comes to frontline practice, policy is often silent to the multitude of unfolding interconnected possibilities that present themselves to practitioners as they seek to go about their activities. The way that policy is often presented implies that there is linearity from policy to implementation. Drawing on Elias’s notion of Involvement and Detachment (1987) I am highlighting a paradoxical relationship between policy and implementation. In introducing the notion of paradox, there is a “vitality” that is required to prevent a collapse to one of the two ends of a continuum; for example a conscious or unconscious rejection of policy in favour of embracing frontline practice, or an over reliance on policy to blindly drive through organisational change. In spending three years looking at the policy and implementation I argue that it is more helpful to consider policy and implementation as a “flow”, rather than a series of discrete activities that are seen to be completed before moving to the next policy area. In looking at policy as something that occurs over a span of time (as opposed to an isolated bounded activity) there is an opportunity to prevent the collapse of the paradox outlined above. By accepting the concept of paradox and considering policy from a temporal perspective, rather than one that is a spatially bound system, the issue of policymaking practice can be considered. There are books and management experts that recommend that managers should “walk the walk”, and get closer to frontline activity. My research has sought to add clarity here, arguing for an experiential and temporal form of reflexivity of practice (as opposed to reflective practice). In this context working and being present with frontline practitioners, paying very careful attention to the experience of the unfolding contingent nature of activity influences the practice of policy making. This is a different experience from simply being present, and being seen to be present. It would be ironic for my research to be converted into a policy document with key elements extracted and condensed into bullet points to be applied like a rule. Instead my research is best kept alive in evoking stories and reminiscences between people as they make sense of their experience of policymaking and implementation together.

We introduce signals to search models of two-sided matching markets and explore the implications for efficiency. In a labour market model in which firms can advertise wages and workers can choose effort, we find that advertisements can help overcome the Diamond paradox. Advertisements fix workers' beliefs, so that workers will react if firms renege on advertisements. Firms then prefer to advertise truthfully. Next, we consider a market with two-sided heterogeneity in which types are only privately observable. We identify a simple condition on the match output function for agents to signal their types truthfully and for the matching to exhibit positive assortative matching despite search frictions. While our theoretical work implies that the efficiency of matching increases as information technology spreads, empirical matching functions typically suggest that it declines. By estimating more general matching functions, we show that the result of declining efficiency can partly be attributed to omitted variable bias.

The phenomena when customers perceive a service as better after a failure and the following recovery process has occurred is called service recovery paradox. In the case of the paradox, customers are more satisfied post-recovery in comparison to if the failure would not have occurred. How to best manage a service recovery depends on the type of service failure since the recovery actions should be adjusted in order to match the failure in a suitable way. Three surveys were conducted in this study, one for each type of failure classified as (1) Service delivery failures, (2) Failure to respond to customer needs and requests and (3) Unprompted and unsolicited employee actions. Each survey presented a scenario in three parts. The first part of the scenario was neutral, the second part was post-failure and the third part was post-recovery. The respondents had to take a standpoint regarding their level of satisfaction after each scenario part. The findings from this study confirm the possibility for an increase in customer post-recovery satisfaction concerning (1) Service delivery failures combined with suitable recovery actions, hence the service recovery paradox was found. In the case of (2) Failures to respond to customer needs and requests combined with suitable recovery actions, the level of post-recovery customer satisfaction did not reach pre- failure satisfaction. The last type of service failure, (3) Unprompted and unsolicited employee actions, resulted in the lowest level of customer satisfaction both post-failure and post-recovery and was hence most far away from the paradox.

Dans cette Thèse, trois cas pratiques sont étudiées dans le domaine de la gestion des fonds où les risques d’investissement semblent mal perçus du fait d’ambiguïtés dans la mesure de risque. Ces ambiguïtés sont analysées comme une erreur élémentaire où une trop forte simplification de la réalité qui peut aboutir à une approche confuse. Les trois études sont développées dans un contexte usuel d’investissement, et portent sur les actions pour la première, sur les obligations pour la seconde et sur les devises pour la troisième. Elles s’inscrivent dans les conventions traditionnelles de la théorie de la finance. Les trois études, qui font l’objet de chapitres distincts, montrent comment la perception de risque peut être troublée dès les premiers traitements des données financières et avant même une éventuelle évaluation des risques. Plusieurs mesures de risque, pourtant courantes dans la finance, apparaissent réductrices ou mal adaptées aux circonstances dans lesquelles elles sont utilisées. Nous décrivons comment, dans certains cas, des mauvaises décisions d’investissement peuvent être prises du fait d’erreur de mesure, ou comment dans d’autres cas le débat dans la littérature économique a été orienté vers de mauvaises directions. Les études soulignent que l’appréciation des risques financiers est loin d’être triviale, même dans les domaines habituellement considérés comme maîtrisés. Une approche systématique a été adoptée pour établir à quel moment précis les analyses intègrent une mauvaise perception du risque. / Three situations are studied in the field of fund management where investment risk may be misperceived due to an ambiguity in the way risk is being measured. The case studies involve equity, bonds and currencies respectively, and are inscribed in the traditional conventions of finance theory. It is shown how the perception of risk can fail immediately in the initial data processing stage even before a propoer analysis. Several risk measures that are frequently used in finance are shown to be defunct or badly adapted for the circumstances in which they tend to be used. We described how in certain cases sub-optimal investment decisions are taken based on an error in measurement, or how in certain cases the debate in the economic literature has been disorientated. The studies underline that the appreciation of financial risk is far from trivial, even in the realms that are generally considered as well-established.

The field of critical theory within organizational theory discusses different specific situations in a middle manager´s work life. The focus often lies within the private sector and a gap can be found in research in the public sector. Universities are among the most complex environments in the public sector, and the middle manager position, the prefect, becomes even more complex than in other organizations. The purpose of this paper is to look at the dilemmas and paradoxes that middle managers in higher education, handle as prefects. We aim to uncover the conflict between interests, values and ideas that creates organizational hypocrisy. The research has an emancipatory philosophy with an inductive approach, which has led to ten interviews with prefects in the south of Sweden. The findings indicate that there are dilemmas in working as a collegial leader and that a paradoxical situation arises between what people see as valuable attributes in a prefect and what they want and need. There is also a paradoxical relationship between the feelings about a decoupled organization depending on who in the hierarchy is exploiting it. There are also findings that support the fact that the extensive amount of administrative duties for prefects generates hypocrisy. The research also found dilemmas concerning individualistic employees. Since the combination of organizational hypocrisy, paradoxes, dilemmas and prefects has not been researched before, this can be an interesting insight in how these may coexist.

Cette recherche se situe dans le champ de la formation professionnelle aux métiers de la relation éducative. A l'origine, un constat portant sur les difficultés et les pièges rencontrés par ces professionnels en situation a motivé un questionnement sur les conditions de préparation à de tels métiers. Dès lors que la formation professionnelle associe deux visées contraires d'instruction et d'émancipation dans son projet, elle tente de faire problématiser les apprenants à partir des situations éducatives rencontrées pour construire les problèmes et produire des avancées. Or, dans une société où la résolution de problème domine, former à la problématisation ne va pas toujours de soi. Certains formés se heurtent à des entraves au cours de leur trajet de formation. Elles peuvent même donner lieu à des paradoxes. L'identification des entraves montre que tout formé navigue entre deux pôles contraires et qu'il est important que chacun effectue pour lui-même un travail d'auto-évaluation en formation afin de travailler ses implications et ainsi d'éviter les dérives de logique et la création de paradoxes. / This research concerns the training of professionals in education-related fields. At the outset, a report dealing with the difficulties and hurdles encountered by these professionals in the work-place led to an investigation into training methods for such occupations. Since professional training combines two opposing objectives , namely instruction and independence of expression of ideas, the aim of this research is to present students with problem situations encountered in real life in order to dissect the issues and find solutions. In a society where resolving problems prevails, training in the analysis of problems is not always evident. During their course, some trainees are faced with obstacles which may lead to paradoxes. Identification of these obstacles shows that each trainee navigates between two opposing poles, and as part of training it is important that each trainee carries out self-evaluation to understand the implication of their actions and thus avoid lapses in logic and the creation of paradoxes.

Thesis advisor: C. Patrick Proctor / The role of immigrant generation status on Latinos' English language development has not received much attention. Empirical studies (Bean & Stevens, 2003) and descriptive data (Fry & Passal, 2009), suggest an intergenerational shift from Spanish to English, such that the first generation primarily speaks Spanish, the second generation speaks both Spanish and English, and the third generation primarily speaks English. Indeed, this intergenerational shift suggests the important role of immigrant generation status in the language and reading comprehension development of bilingual Latinos. If first generation students are more likely to be Spanish dominant, arguably their English language and reading development are likely to be distinctive from their American born peers. Logically, this would suggest a lockstep intergenerational improvement such that second and third generation peers would significantly outperform the first generation in English language and reading. To address this role of immigrant status in the English language and reading development among Latino bilinguals, this dissertation is divided into two studies. The first study was guided by a component view of reading within the context of the immigrant paradox. The second study was concerned with the role of immigrant generation status on the linguistic interdependence (Cummins, 1979) between Spanish language, English language, and English reading comprehension. Both studies utilized multi-level growth modeling to develop longitudinal growth trajectories of English language and reading development. Results indicated that Latino children's English language and reading comprehension performance increased over time. For Study 1, significant effects for generation status suggested a Generation 2 and Generation 3 advantage. For Study 2, significant effects for generation status and Spanish language on the English language growth trajectories provide evidence for paradoxical immigrant generation status trends and cross-language transfer. Both studies emphasize the need for educators to be cognizant of linguistic differences within the bilingual population - particularly for newcomers and students who are less likely to speak English. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.