La obra aborda el caso del conflicto entre EEUU e Irán por el proyecto nuclear de este último, a fin de tratar la relación entre el discurso de los medios latinoamericanos y el discurso hegónico norteamericano, a través de la teoría de <i>Agenda Setting</i>. El trabajo hace hincapié en la construcción del marco de agenda -frames- ofreciendo un modelo de análisis que permita investigar en la relación entre los discursos mencionados.

The objective of this study was to examine goal-setting, perceived competence, goal orientation and psychological well-being in Swedish male football players. Further it was investigated if junior players differed when compared with senior players regarding the subjects mentioned above. This was a quantitative study using the following four instruments: Goal Setting in Sport Questionnaire, Harter’s Competence Scale, Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire and General Health Questionnaire. The participants consisted of 121 male subjects who played in junior or senior teams. Achievement goal theory and a working model made by the authors based on previous research represented the theoretical framework. One-way ANOVA was used to examine differences between juniors and seniors. Pearson’s correlation test was used to examine relationships between all the variables. The results indicated that the juniors had significantly higher ego orientation when compared to the seniors. Significant differences also emerged in the importance of competence, negative selfconfidence and anxiety, where the juniors showed higher results in all. Finally, significant correlations were demonstrated between goal setting and perceived competence, task orientation and goal setting, task and positive well-being, ego and perceived competence, perceived competence and positive well-being and anxiety and negative self-confidence in both juniors and seniors. The results were discussed in relation to the working model, the theoretical framework and earlier research.

Darbo tikslas. Įvertinti Lietuvos gydytojų vadovų sąjungos narių bei pacientų, besigydančių stacionare, požiūrį į sveikatos priežiūros įstaigų ir paslaugų restruktūrizavimo politiką. Tyrimo metodika. Kokybinis tyrimas. Anonimiškai buvo apklausti Lietuvos gydytojų vadovų sąjungos nariai. Išdalintos 85 anketos, grąžinta 77 (atsako dažnis 90,6 proc.). Kokybiniai tyrimo duomenys apdoroti pagal duomenų apdorojimo schemą, kuri padeda atskleisti žinias apie tai, ką žmonės mąsto, jaučia, išgyvena. Kiekybinis tyrimas. Atlikta anoniminė X Respublikinės ligoninės stacionaro pacientų apklausa. Išdalinta 200 anketų, iš kurių grįžo 141 (atsako dažnis 70,5 proc.). Statistinė duomenų analizė atlikta naudojant programinį paketą „IBM SPSS Statistics 20“. Hipotezės tikrinamos naudojant Chi-kvadrato (χ2) kriterijų, tikslųjį Fišerio (F) kriterijų ir z kriterijų. Skirtumai tarp požymių laikyti statistiškai reikšmingais, kai p<0,05. Rezultatai. Gydytojų vadovų nuomone sveikatos priežiūros valdymo sistemoje įvyko daug teigiamų pokyčių. Teikiamos saugios, kokybiškos sveikatos priežiūros paslaugos, įgyvendinta šeimos gydytojo institucijos plėtra, sveikatos priežiūros įstaigos aprūpintos naujomis technologijomis. Lietuvos gydytojų vadovų sąjungos nariai neigiamą prieinamumo pokytį paminėjo daugiausiai kartų. Tyrimas atskleidė gydytojų, slaugytojų stokos problemą, ypač kaimiškuose rajonuose, jų emigraciją. Teisinė sveikatos sistemos bazė bei kompensuojamų vaistų politiką netobula. Daugiau nei du... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Aim of the study: to assess the attitudes of members of Association of Hospital Managers Physicians of Lithuania and of inpatients towards the restructuring policy of healthcare settings and services. Material and methods. Qualitative study. Anonymous questionnaires were distributed to members of Association of Hospital Managers Physicians of Lithuania. Of 85 questionnaires 77 were completed (response rate 90.6%). Qualitative data were analyzed based on framework revealing subjects' ideas, feelings, and experiences. Quantitative study. Survey included the inpatients of one national level hospital. Of 200 distributed questionnaires 141 were completed (response rate 70.5%). Statistical data analysis was performed using „IBM SPSS Statistics 20“ package. For hypothesis testing the Chi-squared, Fisher's exact test, and Z test were used. Significance level was set at 95% level (p<0.05). Results. Hospital managers indicated that system of healthcare management underwent many positive changes. The healthcare services are safe and of adequate quality, institution of family physician is growing, and healthcare settings are equipped with new technologies. Managers of hospitals most frequently mentioned the negative trends in access to healthcare. The study revealed the issue of shortage in physicians and nursing staff (especially in rural areas) and their emigration. Legal base of healthcare system and drugs reimbursement policy are still incomplete. More than two thirds of patients... [to full text]

The Arab spring has been called a social media revolution and social media have been given large importance and significant space in both academic discussions and analysis in the media. The main focus of this study was to examine whether social media have impacted the news reporting of the conflicts. A sample of articles from four different newspapers was examined, taken randomly from all relevant articles published on the newspapers websites between December 2010 and December 2013. A part of that sample was checked for news agency cable reliance and the entire sample were checked for material from social media. Three newspapers were found to rely heavily on news agency material. The New York Times was the exception, having only 4 percent of articles being based on news agency material. Social media material and quotes were found and were used in the report-ing in different ways, but only in 4 percent of articles. It was mainly used as a way to get protester commentary. Two of the included newspapers were China Daily and the New York Times. The differences between the respective reporting in these newspapers were also examined in yet an-other subsample consisting of 100 articles from each newspaper. Several differences be-tween the reporting were found, with China Daily for example presenting a framing more in favour of the government of Syria than the New York Times.

No description available.

A direction-finding system with multiple direction finders (DFs) is a military intelligence system designed to detect the positions of transmitters of radio frequencies. This dissertation studies three decision problems associated with the direction-finding system. The first part of this dissertation is to prescribe DF deployment to maximize the effectiveness with which transmitter positions are estimated in an area of interest (AOI). Three methods are presented to prescribe DF deployment. The first method uses Stansfield’s probability density function to compute objective function coefficients numerically. The second and the third employ surrogate measures of effectiveness as objective functions. The second method, like the first, involves complete enumerations; the third formulates the problem as an integer program and solves it with an efficient network-based label-setting algorithm. Our results show that the third method, which involved use of a surrogate measure as an objective function and an exact label-setting algorithm, is most effective. The second part of this dissertation is to minimize the number of DFs to cover an AOI effectively, considering obstacles between DFs and transmitters. We formulate this problem as a partial set multicover problem in which at least -fraction of the likely transmitter positions must be covered, each by at least direction finders. We present greedy heuristics with random selection rules for the partial set multicover problem, estimating statistical bounds on unknown optimal values. Our results show that the greedy heuristic with column selection rule, which gives priority for selecting a column that advances more rows to k-coverage, performs best on the partial set multicover problems. Results also show that the heuristic with random row and column selection rules is the best of the heuristics with respect to statistical bounds. The third part of this dissertation deals with the problem of deploying direction finders with the goal of maximizing the effectiveness with which transmitter positions can be estimated in an AOI while hedging against enemy threats. We present four formulations, considering the probability that a direction finder deployed at a location will survive enemy threats over the planning horizon (i.e., not be rendered inoperative by an attack). We formulate the first two as network flow problems and present an efficient label-setting algorithm. The third and the fourth use the well-known Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) risk measure to deal with the risk of being rendered inoperative by the enemy. Computational results show that risk-averse decision models tend to deploy some or all DFs in locations that are not close to the enemy to reduce risk. Results also show that a direction-finding system with 5 DFs provides improved survivability under enemy threats.

No description available.

Denna uppsats är en studie av Svenska Dagbladets agenda och Läkare Utan Gränsers och Röda Korsets informationsflöde med fokus på humanitära kriser. Syftet för vår studie är att ta reda på i vilken utsträckning hjälporganisationernas informationsflöde överensstämmer med Svenska Dagbladets agenda. För att få en heltäckande studie vill vi även ta reda på hur hjälporganisationerna gör för att försöka styra mediernas agenda. Idén till denna studie utvecklades efter att Läkare Utan Gränser presenterade rapporten Kriserna svenskar glömt som visar att flera humanitära kriser som drabbat miljontals människor gått svenskarna förbi. I rapporten diskuterar hjälporganisationen om journalistiken kan vara en anledning till att svenskar inte blir tillräckligt informerade om pågående humanitära kriser. Vår undersökning har utgått från teorin om agenda-setting och utifrån den har studiens frågeställningar utvecklats. För att kunna besvara våra frågeställningar har vi studerat vilka länder som uppmärksammats av hjälporganisationerna under första halvåret 2012 och jämfört detta med hur stort utrymme respektive land fick i Svenska Dagbladet samma period. Totalt har 1185 texter analyserats. För att kunna besvara våra frågeställningar har vi använt oss av kvantitativ innehållsanalys. Därefter har en frågeundersökning genomförts gällande hjälporganisationernas mediestrategier. Resultatet av vår studie visar att fördelningen av utrymme är mycket ojämn mellan de länder som ingår i studien, vissa länder förekommer med mycket låg frekvens och andra med mycket hög. Studien visar även att det finns ett samband mellan HDI, Human Development Index, och frekvens i tidningen samt att hjälporganisationerna satsar mer och mer på sociala medier.

Bakgrund: Under senare tid har människor blivit mer uppmärksamma om hur företag hanterar sociala- och miljömässiga frågor. Detta fokus från omvärlden kan påverka företagen att redovisa just denna frivilliga information i årsredovisningen. De senaste årens många företagsskandaler i kombination med en intensiv klimatdebatt, har lett till ett ökat fokus på företagens sociala ansvar. En kategori som även är i fokus när företagen beslutar om att avslöja frivillig information. Negativ uppmärksamhet i media kan påverka företagens beslutsfattande angående frivilligt utlämnande av information. Årsredovisningarna är ett effektivt verktyg där företagen kan kommunicera med omvärlden, och förklara hur företagen arbetar med dessa frågor. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att förklara vilka faktorer som påverkar företag att redovisa frivillig information om hållbarhet och om kvaliteten på denna information hade ökat efter att företagen utstått negativ publicitet i media. Metod: Studien utgick från en kvalitativ ansats med syfte att söka förståelse för varför dessa företag valde att redovisa frivillig information om hållbarhet. Tre av Sveriges största klädföretag studerades. En flerfallstudie med fokus på dokumentundersökning, utgjorde grunden för detta arbete. Slutsats: Kvaliteten på hållbarhetsinformationen ökade i samtliga fallföretag efter den negativa publiciteten i media. Det kan vidare inte bekräftas att ökningen av kvaliteten berodde på den aktuella händelsen.

The Bells Creek catchment covers an area of 100 km2 in the northern part of the Pumicestone Passage region of southeast Queensland. This catchment is an example of a low-lying sub-tropical coastal plain including both freshwater and estuarine settings. The main creeks drain into Pumicestone Passage, a large shallow estuary, which is a declared marine habitat and a Ramsar listed wading bird location. The Bells Creek catchment has undergone land-use change from bushland to grazing to pine plantations and is now coming under pressure for urban development. Quaternary age unconsolidated sediments are the dominant surface material in this area and formed during the last marine transgression. Of significance for such a setting is that estuarine sediments can retain metals mobilised as a result of natural processes (e.g. weathering) and anthropogenic activities (e.g. land-use disturbance). As trace metals can also occur naturally in rocks and their weathered products, it is of value to clearly distinguish natural and anthropogenic controls over metal source, distribution and mobility. To achieve this aim two approaches were taken: 1) to determine the factors controlling the geochemistry of weathered profiles, unconsolidated sediments, soils and natural waters, and 2) to identify the most effective analytical and numerical methods for evaluating metal concentration in different solid materials. This investigation is structured around four linked papers. The influence of mineralogy, geological setting, location of water table and depth of burial on the geochemistry of weathered profile are assessed in Paper 1. The second paper is an investigation of different analytical approaches for studying weathered sedimentary rocks, as well as the testing of several numerical methods for evaluating geochemical data from weathered profiles. In paper 3, a large heterogeneous geochemical data set including trace metals, total organic carbon and sulfur content, in addition to mineralogy and land use practices are integrated to enable evaluation of geochemical and anthropogenic processes controlling metal distribution. The fourth paper considers the distribution of iron and its transport as well as variations in size and morphology of different forms of framboidal pyrite within a smaller sub-catchment in the southern part of the study area. The labile and heterogeneous nature of the bedrock of the region, the Landsborough Sandstone, along with the sub-tropical climate of the area have resulted in weathering profiles up to 26 m deep. Due to the absence of industrial activity in the Bells Creek catchment, such weathering of the bedrock constitutes the major process governing metal distribution throughout the area. Analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows that the primary minerals occurring in the weathered profiles are quartz, plagioclase and K-feldspars while kaolinite is the most dominant secondary mineral present. Overall, parent rock silicates have been extensively replaced by clay minerals and Fe oxides. The relative influence of mineralogy, geological setting and groundwater over chemical weathering and geochemical cycling of metals can be summarised as follows: Mineralogy>geological setting>watertable position>depth of profile burial As the relationship between the total metal composition and the extractable and mobile component has environmental significance, a comparison was made between these forms of metals in weathered material. This comparison shows that metals such as V, Cr and Fe are part of the aluminosilicate matrix and remain largely in primary mineral structures. The retention of these metals may lead to their future release to the environment during on-going weathering. Other elements such as Cu, Zn, Pb, however, are found to be primarily adsorbed to sediment particles and therefore, easily releasable to the environment. As limited information on weathering of sedimentary rocks is reported in the literature, a variety of chemical analysis and numerical assessment methods were used to understand the geochemical processes involved in trace metal mobility in the weathered profiles. Two analytical methods of digestion, hydrofluoric acid and x-ray fluorescence were tested and found to be highly comparable except for refractory elements such as V and Cr. Among the numerical methods applied to the dataset were "chemical and mineralogical indices", "weight loss factor" and "immobile element approach". The "immobile element approach" was found to be the most appropriate method to characterise the weathering profiles typical of the catchment. This method considers a weathering system to be open and transforms the absolute values of trace metals enabling a quantitative evaluation of metal mobility. The following sequence of mobility was determined after applying this method to the data generated in this study: Zn>Pb>Cu>Cr>V The above sequence of mobility is supported by the comparison between extractable and total metal concentrations where Cr and V were identified as being part of aluminosilicate matrix and less mobile. On the other hand, Zn, Pb and Cu were found to exist in adsorbed form and to be readily released to the environment. Trace elements released through weathering and erosion of the bedrock can accumulate in estuarine and coastal sediments. Therefore, both the lateral and vertical distribution of trace metals within sediments and soils of Bells Creek catchment were investigated. Natural and anthropogenic factors controlling metal distribution were compared and it was concluded that the natural sediment character such as its mineral content is more significant than anthropogenic influences in controlling lateral and vertical metal distribution. Further, due to varying degrees of weathering and the heterogeneous nature of soils and sediments, the data were normalised. After testing several methods, it was concluded that calculation of an enrichment factor was the most appropriate. The enrichment factor revealed that elevated trace metal concentrations at some sites are due to bedrock weathering. Due to the environmental persistence of iron, excess of this common metal has always been of environmental concern in many coastal settings. In the small Halls Creek sub-catchment, for example, iron anomalies were detected in bottom sediments (Fe up to 14%). This finding has significance in the area, as iron has been identified as one of the major contributors in the growth of the toxic cyanobacteria "Lyngbya majuscula" which can negatively impact on aquatic fauna. Iron concentrations were also shown to be high in natural stream waters of this coastal zone (up to 16 mg/L); in the bottom sediments of the creek, iron occurs as hematite (freshwater section) or pyrite (estuarine section). A variety of pyrite morphologies were identified in both bottom sediments and particulate matter samples including spherical closely packed framboids, and the rare form of euhedra which indicates slow crystallisation. The different components of this investigation have: 1) established the order and extent to which natural factors control weathering, 2) tested a number of analytical and numerical methods in evaluating weathering profiles, 3) assessed natural and anthropogenic factors and established the mobility sequence for trace metals in weathered profiles and, 4) determined the iron mineral speciation and established morphological variations of pyrite. As the area of Bells Creek catchment will be under development pressure in the future, findings of this study represent a baseline of comparison for environmental assessment and are of importance for environmental management.