There is a paradox in the literature where the amount of cross-border M&As are increasing, even though there is a high volume of unsuccessful cross-border M&As. According to researchers, it can be due to lack of knowledge regarding the knowledge transfer process. Therefore, this study aims to grasp the technological knowledge transfer process and how enablers and constraints influence it during the post-acquisition phase. To fulfil the aim, data was collected through a qualitative case study where eight interviews were held with managersand non-managerial employees that had an important role in the studied technological knowledge transfer process. In addition, case documents were provided by the case company and a site visit was conducted. The results indicate that the technological knowledge transfer process is complex and dynamic, making it difficult to distinguish different phases as they overlap. The results also show that the technological knowledge transfer process is influencedby certain enablers and constraints, which in turn either facilitate or challenge the process. However, the enablers and constraints can vary depending on if the perspective of the senderor receiver of knowledge is applied.

<p>The essence of an effective knowledge transfer process for a technical organization cannot be overemphasized. It does not only translate to its advancement but also improves the learning capacity of the staff in the organization.</p><p>The purpose of this work is to analyze and diagnose the current process of technical knowledge transfer</p><p>It goes further to proffer a suitable model of design process for the technical instructions (which is one form of knowledge that is present in the organization) so as to improve not only the instructional manual but also the processes involved.</p><p>The instructional model is a model gotten from the field of instructional technology (a sub-sect of educational technology) which is used to achieve this feat.</p>

Ruthenium (Ru) has been theoretically considered a viable alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalyst due to its fast water dissociation kinetics. However, its strong affinity to the adsorbed hydroxyl (OHad) blocks the active sites, resulting in unsatisfactory performance during the practical HER process. Here, we first reported a competitive adsorption strategy for the construction of SnO2 nanoparticles doped with Ru single-atoms supported on carbon (Ru SAs-SnO2/C) via atomic galvanic replacement. SnO2 was introduced to regulate the strong interaction between Ru and OHad by the competitive adsorption of OHad between Ru and SnO2, which alleviated the poisoning of Ru sites. As a consequence, the Ru SAs-SnO2/C exhibited a low overpotential at 10 mAcm􀀀2 (10 mV) and a low Tafel slope of 25 mVdec􀀀1. This approach provides a new avenue to modulate the adsorption strength of active sites and intermediates, which paves the way for the development of highly active electrocatalysts.

Background International cooperation became a wide-spread way of exchanging experience and ideas between organizations of the non-profit sector all over the world. The exchange of new ideas and experience on the international level can very often contain cases of policy transfer, which beyond all doubts can influence the participants of international cooperation. Aim The aim of the presented Master's thesis consists of the investigation and analysis of international project on violence prevention between Swedish and Ukrainian NGOs, assessing and verifying the representation in the project the particular case of policy transfer. Method In order to collect the empirical data, mixed qualitative methods were used in this thesis, which included the concept of triangulation used for the data collection. Result The conduction of the presented qualitative research gave an opportunity to uncover and examine the different roles played by Ukrainian and Swedish NGOs in the welfare systems of their respective countries. It also became possible to observe an occurrence of a particular form of cooperation between the two NGOs in the international cooperation project, which can be related to a particular type of policy transfer. Conclusions Due to the fact that the project analysed in this study is still ongoing, it is still too early to derive any final conclusion about its achievements and formulate an evaluation concerning the nature of the policy transfer process. So far the author of the presented thesis can see that the project on its current stage has an occurrence of lesson-drawing policy transfer.

Background: Globalization, technological advancement and opportunity of capturing new markets have pushed business organizations to expand their business in the inter- national market. As a result, companies have established their subsidiaries in the host country and control their business from headquarters. Moreover, headquarters provide all the support such as training, strategies and knowledge to their subsidiary to perform better and help to build competitive advantage. The importance of knowledge transfer has increased in recent decades because knowledge is considered as an asset. Aim: The aim of the study is to analysis the method of knowledge transfer (explicit and tacit) from multinational companies headquarter to their subsidiaries. Methodology: In this paper, qualitative research approach has been followed with con- tent analysis technique. Primary data has been collected through interviews and Conve- nience sampling technique were used. Findings: Findings of the study shows that MNCs are using agency theory and knowl- edge base theory to transfer knowledge to their subsidiary. Most of the cases it has been observed that headquarters appeared as a knowledge creator whereas subsidiaries only utilize that knowledge. Moreover, manufacturing based companies transfer more explicit knowledge and service based companies transfer more tacit knowledge. Almost every MNCs use training, seminars, creating social groups and written instructions to transfer explicit and tacit knowledge to their subsidiaries. Study also found that there are some internal (hoarding behavior, non-invented here syndrome) and external factors (culture, language, location) which affect the knowledge transfer process of MNCs. Contribution of the study: This study will help managers around the world to under- stand the core concept of knowledge transfer, knowledge transfer method and factors affecting knowledge transfer. On the other hand, it will also help to design flawless channels to transfer knowledge. Scope of further studies: More interviews can be added including managers from the subsidiaries to get a more broader perspective. Also the studies can be done with com- paring different industries since knowledge is different depending on the industry. For example, the service Industry has more tacit knowledge than in the manufacturing indus- try.

Vibratory driven sheet piles are a cost-effective retaining wall structure, and in coming decades the continued use of this method will be crucial for minimising costs within the construction sector. However, vibratory driven sheet piles are a source of ground vibrations, which may harm structures or induce disturbance. Most urban construction projects face strict limits on permissible vibration level. Being able to reliably predict the expected vibration level prior to construction is therefore highly important. Reliable prediction demands a profound knowledge of the vibration transfer process, from source to point of interest. This thesis focuses on clarifying the vibration transfer process and will serve as a platform for the future development of a reliable prediction model. The vibration transfer process is divided into two main parts: vibration source and vibrations in soil. The different parts in the vibration transfer process are studied and investigated with the help of a literature review, field tests and numerical modelling. Within the scope of this thesis, three field tests have been conducted and a new instrumentation system has been developed. The new instrumentation system enables recording of both sheet pile vibrations and ground vibrations at depth during the entire driving. The field tests aimed to study the vibration transfer from sheet pile to soil and the vibration transfer within a sheet pile wall, as well as the wave pattern in soil. To study sheet pile behaviour during driving a numerical model was developed, which is also meant to serve as a basis for further studies. The main scientific contribution of this thesis is the identification of the sheet pile behaviour during driving. For practical application, the main contribution is the development of an increased knowledge of the vibration transfer process from source to soil, together with the new instrumentation system and the development of the numerical model. / Vibrodriven spont är en kostnadseffektiv stödkonstruktion och i framtiden kommer den fortsatta användningen av denna metod att vara nödvändig för att minimera kostnader för byggprojekt. Vibrodriven spont är dock en källa till markvibrationer, som kan skada byggnader eller orsaka störningar. De flesta byggprojekt måste förhålla sig till strikta krav gällande vibrationsnivåer. Möjligheten att på ett tillförlitligt sätt förutsäga vibrationsnivåerna innan bygget startar är därför av största vikt. Tillförlitlig prognos av vibrationsnivåer i samband med vibrodrivning av spont kräver god kännedom om vibrationsöverföringsprocessen, från källan till det potentiella skadeobjektet. Denna avhandling fokuserar på att förtydliga vibrationsöverföringsprocessen och fungera som en plattform för framtida utveckling av en tillförlitlig prognosmodell. Vibrationsöverföringsprocessen delas in i två huvuddelar; vibrationskällan och vibrationer i jord. De olika delarna av vibrationsöverföringsprocessen studeras och undersöks med hjälp av litteraturstudie, fältförsök och numerisk modellering. Inom ramarna för denna avhandling har tre fältförsök utförts och ett nytt instrumenteringssystem har utvecklats. Det nya instrumenteringssystemet möjliggör mätning av både spontvibrationer och vibrationer på djup i jorden, under hela neddrivningsfasen. Fältförsöken syftade till att studera vibrationsöverföringen mellan spont och jord, vibrationsöverföringen inom en spontvägg samt vågmönstret i jorden under drivning. För att studera spontens beteende under neddrivning utvecklades en numerisk modell, som också kan fungera som en bas för framtida studier. Avhandlingens huvudsakliga vetenskapliga bidrag är identifieringen av spontens beteende under neddrivning. För praktisk tillämpning är det huvudsakliga bidraget förklaringen av vibrationsöverföringsprocessen från källa till jord, det nya instrumenteringssystemet samt utvecklingen av den numeriska modellen.

Gegenstand dieser Arbeit war die Synthese von thermisch schaltbaren Kammcopolymeren auf Basis von N-(Isopropylacrylamid) (NiPAAm) und Polyethylenglykolmakromonomeren (PEGMA). Die intensive Charakterisierung der aus diesen Copolymeren hergestellten Schichten und deren Anwendung als Zellkultursubstrate war ein weiteres Forschungsziel dieser Arbeit. Die mit Hilfe der neuartigen Schichten erhaltenen Zellkultursubstrate wurden anhand verschiedener adhärenter Zelllinien erfolgreich getestet. Alle getesten Zelltypen (Mausfibroblasten, humane Endothelzellen der Nabelschnurvene und humane korneale Endothelzellen) proliferierten auf den angebotenen Zellkultursubstraten bei 37°C und konnten durch senken der Temperatur geerntet werden.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:23:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LAEL - Assunta M Aguena.pdf: 7858063 bytes, checksum: 5132d82bef108bfd802b3da32d81774a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-10-20 / This dissertation aims at investigating the rhythmical and intonation aspects of the English production by a fluent speaker of this language whose mother language is Portuguese, having as a reference the production of a native speaker of English, and thus, to inspect how and in which level the phonological-phonetic processes related to sounds, rhythm and intonation of the target language are transferred to the mother language prosody. The relation between the sound production and the prosody can be seen in the connected speech provided by sound modifications in the juncture between words, in the use of pauses, assimilation, reduction and elimination of sounds, among others. The corpus, comprised of 40 sentences from the film Dozen by the Cheaper was used to get closer to a connected speech production. The sentences were typed in individual cards and read six times by each subject, both female, between 25 and 30 years old, and the cards were shuffled before each repetition. The six reading recordings were done at PUC-SP s Radio and TV studio. The data analysis was provided by the Acoustic Phonetic using duration measures (time a sound takes to be produced) and the variation of the fundamental frequency (tone variation during the speech) based on the waveform ranged to the wide-band spectrograms, extracted from the speech signal digitalized by an acoustic analysis program. Some sentences from the corpus were chosen to the analysis, and consonantal and vowel segments were measured. Duration measures and f0 charts were made in order to observe how much the subjects got closer or farther to the sound production, and to the English rhythm and intonation due to the Brazilian Portuguese interference. The final results point that: (1) the sound production, English rhythm and intonation are related to the connected speech, the mother language (in this case, the Brazilian Portuguese) interfere in the sound production and English prosody, but, an important aspect is that this interference is not categorical, it can occur or not and, if it occurs, it must be done in different levels; and (3) the Acoustic Phonetic provides some advantages to the teaching and learning of a foreign language rhythm and intonation, in so far as the different production aspects can be observed, making possible that the Brazilian English teacher makes clear the differences between the mother language and the target one to the students, differences that can or can t be noticed or produced by the students, and in different levels / Esta dissertação de mestrado tem como objetivo investigar os aspectos rítmicos e entoacionais na produção do inglês por um falante proficiente nessa língua e nativo do português brasileiro (PB), tendo como referência a produção de um falante nativo do inglês, e assim inspecionar de que modo e em que grau processos fonético-fonológicos da relação entre sons e ritmo e entoação da língua-alvo são mapeados na prosódia da língua materna. A relação entre a produção de sons e prosódia é observada na fala corrente por meio da transformação de sons na juntura entre palavras, do uso de pausas, da assimilação, redução e/ou apagamento de sons, entre outros. Para aproximar-se de uma produção de fala corrente, foi utilizado um corpus composto por 40 sentenças, retiradas do script do filme Dozen by the Cheaper (Doze é Demais), as quais foram digitadas em fichas individuais e lidas por cada sujeito, ambos do sexo feminino e na faixa etária entre 25 e 30 anos, em seis repetições, sendo as fichas embaralhadas antes de cada repetição. A gravação das leituras foi feita no Estúdio de Rádio e TV da PUC-SP. A análise dos dados foi feita por meio da Fonética Acústica, a partir de medidas de duração (tempo que um som leva para ser produzido) e da variação da freqüência fundamental (variação de tons durante a fala), realizadas com base na forma da onda alinhada a espectrogramas de banda larga, extraídos do sinal de fala digitalizado, por um programa de análise acústica. Foram selecionadas algumas sentenças do corpus para análise, nas quais foram medidos segmentos acústicos correspondentes a vogais e consoantes. Em seguida, foram elaborados gráficos das medidas de duração e f0 para observar o quanto os dois sujeitos aproximavam-se ou distanciavam-se na produção dos sons e do ritmo e entoação do inglês em função da interferência do português brasileiro sobre o sujeito não-nativo. Os resultados obtidos indicam que: (1) a produção de sons e do ritmo e entoação estão intimamente relacionadas na fala corrente; (2) há interferência da língua materna (neste trabalho, o português brasileiro) na produção de sons e prosódia do inglês; porém, o aspecto importante é que essa interferência não é categórica; podendo ou não ocorrer e, se ocorrer, fazê-lo em diferentes graus; e (3) a Fonética Acústica proporciona vantagens para o ensino e aprendizagem das questões rítmicas e entoacionais de uma língua estrangeira, na medida em que os diferentes aspectos da produção podem ser observados, possibilitando que professores brasileiros de inglês possam explicitar as diferenças entre a língua materna e a língua-alvo aos seus alunos, diferenças que podem ou não ser por eles percebidas e/ou produzidas, ou incorporadas, e em diferentes graus

Gegenstand dieser Arbeit war die Synthese von thermisch schaltbaren Kammcopolymeren auf Basis von N-(Isopropylacrylamid) (NiPAAm) und Polyethylenglykolmakromonomeren (PEGMA). Die intensive Charakterisierung der aus diesen Copolymeren hergestellten Schichten und deren Anwendung als Zellkultursubstrate war ein weiteres Forschungsziel dieser Arbeit. Die mit Hilfe der neuartigen Schichten erhaltenen Zellkultursubstrate wurden anhand verschiedener adhärenter Zelllinien erfolgreich getestet. Alle getesten Zelltypen (Mausfibroblasten, humane Endothelzellen der Nabelschnurvene und humane korneale Endothelzellen) proliferierten auf den angebotenen Zellkultursubstraten bei 37°C und konnten durch senken der Temperatur geerntet werden.

Text in German, summaries in German and English / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-197) / In dieser Forschungsarbeit wird untersucht, ob und inwieweit transgenerationale Übertragungsprozesse als Folge von psychischen Traumata, welche Vertriebene in und nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg erlebten, heute noch bei Nachfahren in der Kriegsenkelgeneration eine Rolle spielen. Dabei wird unter anderem untersucht, wie sich das Ereignis der Vertreibung mit Blick auf psychische Traumata konkret auswirkte und zu welchen, auch heute noch spürbaren, Symptomen es geführt hat. Auf Grund der Symptome wurden in einer empirischen Untersuchung fünf sogenannte Kriegsenkel interviewt, um zu erfahren, wie Betroffene die Auswirkungen dieser Symptome im Alltag beschreiben und welche Rolle dabei geistliche Erfahrungen spielen. Die Ergebnisse dieser Interviews führen zum Abgleich der Thesen und sollen schlussendlich helfen, praktische Konsequenzen für die Seelsorgearbeit zu ziehen und eine Hilfestellung in der Problemdiagnose zu geben. / This thesis explores if and how transgenerational transfer processes which are a consequence of mental traumata of displaced people in and after World War II still play a role in the lives of their descendants in the generation of the “grandchildren of war”. For one thing it looks at how the event of forced displacement specifically has had an impact on mental traumata and which symptoms have resulted, that are still perceptible today. Based on the symptoms five of the so called “grandchildren of war” have been interviewed in an empirical survey, in order to find out how those affected describe the effects of these symptoms on their everyday lives and which is the role of spiritual experiences. The findings of these interviews are compared to the theses and finally, should help to draw practical conclusions for councelling and offer help to diagnose problems. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)