My dissertation explores how authoritarian governments use language policy to impact public political trust. Based on a comprehensive examination through survey analyses, experiments, and large-scale text analyses, my research demonstrates that authoritarian governments, such as in China, can use language policy as a political tool to influence citizens’ political attitudes. In particular, language policy empowers the official language used by government representatives, such as street-level bureaucrats, reinforcing their political identities and enhancing citizens' trust in them. Using an original randomized experiment in China based on a new sociolinguistic technique, my research finds robust evidence that listeners hold significantly more trust in bureaucrats who speak the official language than in those who speak dialects, even if the respondent and government representative share the same dialect. Furthermore, my research shows that language not only influences citizens' political trust but also their understanding of political concepts. Using a computer-assisted text analysis of over one million articles from the official newspaper of the dominant party of China from 1946-2003, I indicate a refocusing strategy by which the official discourse about democracy manipulates the meaning of democracy in the Chinese political language without contradicting with the Western democratic values, while simultaneously preserving the authoritarian regime. Drawing on multiple waves of nationally representative surveys from China, my dissertation also identifies distinctive effects of improving listening, speaking, and relative proficiencies of Putonghua on Chinese citizens' political interest, efficacy, pursuit, and institutional-based political trust. This study contributes to political science, and even the entire social science by justifying the important role of language in human social and political lives and turning the research focus from language content to language context.

Car dependency which corresponds to excessive and inappropriate usage of the car itself is becoming a major problem all around the world. It shapes urban areas in such a way that the overall urban form as well as individual activities all develop to accommodate cars. However, introducing nonmotorized modes is seen as a remedy to overcome the car dependency. It offers a chance for retrieving healthy urban environments and healthy social lives and also for revitalizing/enhancing public spaces in cities. This means increasing the quality and quantity of pedestrian areas which have been receiving increasing emphasis all around the world. In this thesis, it is intended to show that pedestrianization can be, and should be, a valid transport policy in growing metropolitan areas that are becoming more and more car-oriented, such as Ankara. As a case study, this study assesses potentials and possibilities for creating a pedestrian environment in Ankara, Tunali Hilmi Street. To do so, detailed pedestrian surveys/analyses including v pedestrian counts, pedestrian movement analysis, pedestrian static analysis and pedestrian space analysis throughout the street and questionnaires with potential stakeholders including pedestrians, shop-owners and taxi-drivers are carried out. Through these analyses, it is assessed whether Tunali Hilmi Street is suitable for such an arrangement in terms of pedestrianization or not. As a result, this thesis makes an emphasis on non-motorization and pedestrianization as a method of preventing increasing car-oriented arrangements and revitalizing city centre for the case of Tunali Hilmi Street.

The UBC CS Science Education Initiative (CSSEI) has resulted in a number of research projects. New teaching methods and student assessment instruments are introduced to engage student learning and evaluations of their understanding. In this paper, we report four of these recent initiatives and their initial findings.

The purpose of this thesis was to elaborate a survey analysis in the cadastral territory of Milenovice. For the production of the survey analysis was used the methodology processed by Dumbrovský. This methodology divides survey analysis into the research of the climatic, hydrological and aquiculturing rates, the research of the transport system and the current situation of the cadastral territory, the research of the agricultural land utilization and the protection of the agricultural land resources and the research of ecological stability of the territory. The result of this thesis was the discovering of the problems concerning the process of the complex land adjustments in the mentioned territory. The survey analysis refers mainly to the problems regarding the erosion, the flood-protection, the ecological stability and the drainage.

La thèse présentée s'inscrit dans une période de crise économique, qui affecte tout particulièrement les institutions européennes. A l'aide de données récentes, nous tentons de cerner des continuités ou ruptures dans la perception que les citoyens ont de l'intégration européenne. Nous utilisons de nouvelles sources pour effectuer nos travaux et travaillons sur la variable dépendante afin de cibler un aspect précis du soutien à l'intégration dans chaque chapitre. Sur le plan théorique, nos travaux confirment que quelle que soit la variable dépendante choisie et la méthode utilisée, il existe une masse d'individus favorables à l'Union européenne, et les autres, qui semblent plutôt indécis. Ce clivage entre deux populations s'explique très largement par les déterminants socioéconomiques. Les individus les plu: aisés et les plus qualifiés se montrent nettement plus favorables à l'intégration européenne dans chacune des dimensions étudiées. En dehors de ce résultat bien connu de la littérature, de nombreuses limites aux explications fondées sur des variables économiques sont mises en lumière dans cette thèse. Dans le premier chapitre nous montrons que, pour distinguer les individus hostiles à l'intégration des individus indécis, il est indispensable de prendre en compte l'offre politique nationale. Le deuxième chapitre met en évidence le fait que les variables économiques n'expliquent que faiblement le soutien "affectif" c'est-à-dire le soutien diffus et stable dans le temps dont l'Union européenne a besoin pour exister et avancer. Enfin, dans le dernier chapitre, nous constatons que les variables économiques expliquent mal la dimension territorial des préférences politiques. / The present dissertation uses recent data to identify continuities and ruptures in the perception of the European Union held by European citizens. We especially question the extent to which economic drivers shape public support for the European Union. New data sources are used to carry out the empirical analysis in our study. The dependant variables in each chapters are designed to identify precise aspects o public support. From a theoretical perspective, our findings confirm that regardless of the dependent variable and the method used, a sizeable majority of EU citizens are supportive of the EU, while the other half of the European population appears as uncertain. This broa cleavage is explained to a large extend by socioeconomic determinants. Highly skilled respondents with high incomes display more pro­EU attitudes in each of the dimensions of public support considered in the empirical analysis. Alongside this result, which is already well­known in the literature, the present dissertation emphasizes several limitations to the explanatory power of economic variables. ln the first chapter, we show that, to distinguish between individuals hostile to the idea of European integration and those who are only uncertain (or ambivalent), the domestic political offer should be taken into account. Chapter two highlights the fact that economic variables do not explain affective support i.e. diffuse support, stable over time which is crucial to the legitimacy of European institutions and to ensure the continuity of the EU. Finally, in the last chapter, it appears that the theoretical frameworks applied to former member states cannot be applied to new member states.

This thesis is focused on the market research. The basis is an analysis of the consumer behavior of the Czech beer festival visitors. The survey was conducted through the written questionnaires and should show whether the event promotion is effective, which of the used cumminaciation channels have the biggest response and whether the visitors were dis/satisfied and what contributes to it. Basic information about the Czech Beer Festival and about the possible rivals are described in the first part of the thesis. The second and third part is theoretical. It introduces the term of event marketing, integration of this communaciation instrument into the company communacition strategy and basic information about the market research doing through questionnaires. The questions, projection and evaluation of the results are in the fourth part, that is the basic core of this thesis. The overall appraisal and reccomendations for the future are prepared in the last part.

Military readiness--the ability to field trained forces that are able fight and win wars--is a top concern for military leaders. The ability of the services to retain highly trained personnel contributes, in large part, to military readiness. Readiness is negatively affected when a subgroup within the military is retained at a lower rate than the majority of military members. Such is the case of service members who are part of dual-military couples, that is, a couple consisting of two military members. The data presented in this thesis strongly support the theory that both male and female officers who are members of dual-military couples begin their careers highly motivated to remain in the service for a full 20-year career. However, after they pass the 10 year point in their careers, their comparative intention to remain for a full 20 year career is lower than their non-dual military contemporaries. The analysis also supports the idea that integrating work and family life remains one of the main challenges for dual-military service members. Overall, recommendations to ameliorate the problem of lower retention of dual-military members focus on flexibility. Enacting policies that help dual-military members deconflict and/or synchronize deployments and one-year remote tours will help relieve stress on the family. Providing increased opportunities for members to be stationed together during assignments by increasing opportunities to work outside of the member's main career field, as well as maintaining the current increased tour length, will also help dual-military members to balance work and home life. Working to increase flexible Department of Defense-provided childcare options will allow dual-military members to meet their caregiving requirements as well as their military service requirements, enhancing their retention. Finally, providing a range of return-to-service options would increase all military members' control over their careers and provide them the flexibility to meet their caregiving responsibilities. / Master of Arts

Traffic signs, which are extremely important for traffic safety, aims to regulate traffic by providing information about the characteristics of road and road environment for drivers. The success of traffic signs mainly rely on the easy comprehensibility of its meaning in a short time. Further more, today&rsquo / s global economies and transportation systems emphasize the need for more universial traffic signs which was the main motivation of two main treaties on traffic signs / Vienna Convetion in 1968 and European Aggreement Treaty in 1971, which are signed and followed by Turkey. For an effort to increase traffic safety, a Subcommittee of the Turkish Highway Traffic Safety (THTS) Council requested the determination of comprehensibility of critical signs with higher probability of impact on traffic safety selected by a group of experts from engineers and law enforcement agencies in a survey study. The survey questionnaire included 30 selected traffic signs (including two prohibition signs omitting oblique bar recently changed as a part of the European Union Participation Process) and 9 control group signs, a total of 39 traffic signs, and driver characteristic questions, such as gender, age, educational background, etc. to reveal insights about a) the level of comprehensibility of different groups of traffic signs and and b) driver characteristics that may affect the comprehensibility of these signs. A pilot study in the city of Ankara is conducted over a sample of 1,478 surveys. Answers for the meaning of each sign are coded using a scale of five (opposite, wrong, no comment, partially correct and correct responses). The results showed that the control group signs have very high comprehensibility as expected, while some of the critical signs were not known much, or mistaken for others, even mistaken for opposite meanings. The certain loss of comprehensibility of the traffic signs changed recently is seen in the comparative analysis of the signs before and after the change, as well as significant shift towards an opposite meaning. The significance of driver characteristics (gender, education, occupation etc.) affecting the comprehensibility of the traffic signs varies among traffic signs and characteristics. As the result of this study, (THTS) Council decided to support traffic and driver education more and mass promotion of mis- or un-comprehended signs without searching for more local solutions or versions.

This master thesis focuses on the proposal of marketing stratégy of product, which is gypsum based self leveling compound produced by Sika CZ, s.r.o. Based on theoretical knowledge analysis chosen strategy and current customers experiences. Designs the proposal of marketing startegy. Outcome of this thesis are relevant proposals for its improvement.

In my thesis is elaborated marketing strategy of newly established company dealing with wine trade. The objective is successful establisment of company VÍNO SLOVÁCKO on the market. A secondary objective will be to extend the product portfolio, the stabilization of market position and increase turnover. The first part will deal with the analysis of external and internal environment and identifying customers and their requirements. On the basis of of this survey is followed by detailed marketing strategy. I primarily focused in the marketing strategy on product marketing namely new product line of Moravian wines.