Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

<p>This study aims to find out what students think about bilingualism as well as whether there are advantages and disadvantages of it, based on the children's perspective. All children in this class are bilingual, is thus a mother tongue other than Swedish. All were born in Sweden but has parents who are originally from / born in other countries in addition to having mom who was born in Sweden but originally from another country. In my study I have chosen to use qualitative methods in which I used semi-structured interviews and non participant observations. In the study, I have come to interview the children think that being bilingual is good, they mean that there are some drawbacks to this except that it can sometimes be a bit hard when someone does not understand. Also what they think is good with bilingualism is that you can use the languages depending on where you are, if they go to their homeland, they speak their mother tongue with people, relatives because they do not understand Swedish. Or sometimes they need their mother tongue during lesson time when they do not understand a word. Or when they work together with someone who speaks the same language as them, then they sometimes speak the language because it is easier to explain and understand. Being bilingual has formerly been regarded as something negative, but with time, this in turn has changed. Today it has become increasingly common to be bilingual or multilingual, the more languages you know, the better you can get in the society, and then you can switch between languages. To know two languages gives the individual a broader cultural experience.</p>

<p>Denna uppsats behandlar Onsjö golfklubb och dess medlemmar. Under de senaste åren har många medlemmar valt att lämna klubben. Vi har valt att titta på varför medlemmarna väljer att lämna klubben, vad klubben kan göra för att tillfredställa sina medlemmar bättre och därmed skapa lojalitet.</p><p>För att kunna ta reda på dessa olika frågor valde vi att göra både en kvalitativ- och en kvantitativ undersökning. Den kvalitativa ansatsen genomfördes genom telefonintervjuer med före detta medlemmar. De befintliga medlemmarna undersöktes kvantitativt med hjälp av en enkät. Enkäten utformades efter intervjuer med 10 stycken golfspelare som inte har någon anknytning till Onsjö golfklubb.</p><p>Den information som vi fick fram genom intervjuerna och enkäterna analyserade vi med hjälp av teorier inom ämnet. De teorier som vi valt att använda oss av är kundtillfredsställelse, engagemang, kundlojalitet, kundens toleranszon och kundens bytesbeteende.</p><p>Vår undersökning visade att medlemmarna är nöjda med de attribut som de identifierar som viktiga till exempel banans skick, geografisk placering och banans utformning. Medlemmarna har inte uppgett att atmosfären i klubben är speciellt viktigt men vår undersökning har visat att golf är en social sport och det sociala umgänget i klubben är viktigare än vad medlemmarna själva förstår. Atmosfären har av ungefär hälften av medlemmarna fått underbetyg. Klubben verkar vara kraftigt splittrad mellan de gamla, engagerade medlemmarna och de nya som är där främst för att spela golf. Detta har påverkat lojaliteten mycket negativt.</p>

<p><strong>Abstract</strong><strong></strong></p><p>With the Introduction of the internet and human technological advancement, our everyday lives have changed dramatically over the past 20 years and because of this, how we communicate, form social networks and purchase or sell goods have also developed.</p><p>In the light of this, we have completed this thesis which concerns the influence of the internet and the possibilities of forming long lasting relationships between businesses and customers through what we have described as ‘Locking in’ the customer. This is done by forming ‘Psychological Switching Costs’ that make the cognitive process of switching too expensive or un-wanted by the customer. In order to develop an understanding of this we saw it as prudent to interview senior managers of businesses that operate mainly on the internet to discover if they attempt such strategic moves in, ‘Locking in’ customers. Thus forming the research question; How are Companies based on the internet using Psychological Switching Costs as a strategy to Lock in the customers?</p><p>The process by which the information was collected was through a qualitative method and semi-structured interviews. We found from the respondents that were interviewed that when it comes to operating a business on the internet it is important to consider, Transparency, Two-way communication, Simplicity, Agility and Flexibility in creating a loyal customer who is positively locked in. These were the strategies considered by the respondents to have an effect on customers.</p><p>One of the most interesting points that were made was that if the customer was locked in to the business, the business did not have to be as dynamic. Thus, according to the respondents, Psychological Switching Costs do have an influence on how they form strategy to Lock In customers. In that it can be beneficial to attempt to Lock in customers rather than develop other Dynamic Capabilities. This factor seems very relevant when considering communication, agility and flexibility, in that by forming relationships and strategies directly to the customer these companies are creating something that is difficult to substitute, un-imitable for their competitors and convenient to the customer.</p>

Graduation date: 2004

Also issued as a Ph.D. thesis in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, 1973. / Bibliography: p. 51.

Stephen H. Unger. / "April 26, 1957." Based on a thesis, M.I.T. Dept. of Electrical Engineering, May 1, 1957. / Bibliography: p. 45.

We consider an online learning scenario in which the learner can make predictions on the basis of a fixed set of experts. The performance of each expert may change over time in a manner unknown to the learner. We formulate a class of universal learning algorithms for this problem by expressing them as simple Bayesian algorithms operating on models analogous to Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). We derive a new performance bound for such algorithms which is considerably simpler than existing bounds. The bound provides the basis for learning the rate at which the identity of the optimal expert switches over time. We find an analytic expression for the a priori resolution at which we need to learn the rate parameter. We extend our scalar switching-rate result to models of the switching-rate that are governed by a matrix of parameters, i.e. arbitrary homogeneous HMMs. We apply and examine our algorithm in the context of the problem of energy management in wireless networks. We analyze the new results in the framework of Information Theory.

This thesis focuses on the negotiation of power and identity between Swiss students and instructors in the Swiss classroom. Although Schriftdeutsch1 is the official language of secondary schools in Switzerland, speakers often practice code-switching, which serves many conversational functions (Auer 1998). This paper examines how Germans-peaking Swiss use code-switching strategies to negotiate power and identity in the classroom. My data is drawn from interactions in the classroom and a short interview. Using a constructivist methodology based on conversation analysis (Antaki & Widdicombe 1998; Meinhof & Galasinski 2005; Pavlenko & Blackledge 2004), I analyse classroom discussion in terms of the discourse functions of code-switching and how Swiss German is used to negotiate power and identity in interaction. This thesis reveals an unmarked classroom situation and shows that codeswitching fulfills important functions in classroom discourse. / Applied Linguistics

A custom-made Peltier-based thermal device is designed to perform miniaturized bio-molecular reactions in a microfluidic platform for medical diagnostic tests, especially the polymerase chain reaction for DNA amplification. The cascaded two-stage device is first approximated by multiple local linear models whose parameters are obtained by system identification. A decentralized switching controller is proposed, where two internal model-based PI controllers are used in local stabilizations and PD and PI controllers are applied during transitions respectively. Couplings and drift are further reflected into the controllers. Desired temperature tracking performance on the transition speed and overshoot is achieved, and the feasibility of the Peltier device in a microfluidic platform is further validated by the successful applications of viral detection. To achieve fast and smooth transition while avoiding tuning by trial-and-errors, a nonlinear model is developed based on the first principles, whose parameters are partially calculated from empirical rules and partially determined by open-loop and closed-loop experimental data. Two novel nonlinear controllers are designed based on the nonlinear model. The first controller extends the input-to-state feedback linearization technique to a class of nonlinear systems that is affine on both the control inputs and the square of control inputs (including the Peltier system). Additional local high gain controllers are introduced to reduce the steady-state errors due to parameter uncertainty. The second controller is a time-based switching controller which switches between nonlinear pseudo-PID/ state feedback controllers and local PI controllers. Calculation burden is reduced and steady-state error is minimized using a PI controller locally, while fast and smooth transition is achieved by the nonlinear counterpart. The robustness of the controller is verified in simulation under worse case scenarios. Both simulation and experimental results validated the effectiveness of the two nonlinear controllers. The proposed linear/ nonlinear, switching/ non-switching controllers provide different options for the Peltier-based thermal applications. The scalability and the parameter updating capability of the nonlinear controllers facilitate the extension of the Peltier device to other microfluidic applications. / Controls