Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to represent the first empirical attempt to explore global-local consumer identities as drivers of global digital brand usage. Specifically, this study considers a unique category of digital products, social networking sites (SNS), and develops a set of hypotheses to assess the mechanism through which location-based identities influence the actual usage of global SNS (Facebook and Instagram). Moreover, cross-country variations are investigated under the lens of developed vs developing countries. Design/methodology/Approach: Cross-country surveys in a developed (Austria) and a developing country (Thailand) were conducted. Data collected from 425 young adults were analyzed using SEM techniques in order to test a set of hypotheses. Findings: Results show that in Thailand, users with a global identity enjoy participating in global SNS more than their counterparts in Austria. In addition, consumers with a local identity in Thailand demonstrate less pleasure when participating in global SNS than their counterparts in Austria, and consequently are less inclined to use global SNS. Practical implications: Findings provide digital marketers with useful insights into important strategic decisions regarding the selection and potential adaptation of global digital brands according to the country context. Originality/value: This research is the first to extend the location-based identity research in the context of global digital brands, explain how global-local identities predict SNS usage through an engagement mechanism and investigate cross-country variations of this mechanism.

This dissertation seeks to deepen understanding towards language change by answering three questions: What is the unit of change? What is the manner of change? What are the factors of change? Three cases of linguistic innovation in the Chinese language are examined. Adopting a usage-based approach, I analyze the language data of these three linguistic innovations, and the results provide unanimous answers to the three questions. First, the basic unit of language change is a construction, and it can be of any length, such as phrasal, clausal or discourse-length. Second, these cases of linguistic innovation present a scenario of change led by high-frequency exemplars, demonstrating that language change can be abrupt rather than gradual. Third, the external factors giving rise to the exemplars prove crucial in reconstructing language change in progress. All three case studies present linguistic innovation as a response to a changing material reality. I thus advocate a usage-based constructionist approach that considers external factors in the investigation of language change, as it allows us to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the process.

The human genome is highly heterogeneous in its GC composition. How codon usage affects translation rates has been extensively studied and exploited to increase protein expression. Although effects on virtually all other steps in gene expression have been reported as well, so far no systematic approach has been taken to quantitatively measure the contribution of each to overall protein levels in human cells. Here, I utilise a library of several hundred synonymous variants of the Green fluorescent protein (GFP) to characterise the influence of codon usage on gene expression in human cells. In an initial small-scale screen, I show that protein levels are largely correlated with codon-usage and particularly GC-content. Additionally, I demonstrate that these changes can already be seen on the RNA level, confirming more broadly previously published data from our lab (Kudla et al., 2006). In order to assess the consequences of randomised codon usage on a larger scale, I established and validated a high-throughput approach for the phenotypic profiling of reporter genes. Using a pool of cells stably expressing >200 GFP variants, I measured multiple parameters simultaneously, such as protein levels, translational state, RNA levels, stability and export. Data from these experiments confirm a strong relationship between GC-content, protein levels, as well as RNA export, reproducibly in two cell lines. Low expression of especially GC-poor variants could not be rescued by splicing, but increased nuclear-to-cytoplasmic RNA ratio, suggesting further mechanisms important for efficient gene expression. These effects are even more pronounced when the distribution of GC is spread evenly along the coding sequence. Interestingly, our data also suggests that high GC within the first 200nt is more predictive of efficient gene expression, contrasting studies performed on bacteria, in which strong secondary folding near the ribosomal binding site was shown to be non-permissive for translation (Kudla et al., 2009). By relating experimentally derived parameters to sequence features known to inhibit expression, I demonstrate that cryptic splicing is a major factor leading to decreased levels of particularly GC-poor GFP variants. An attempt to quantitatively assess the relative contribution of several sequence features (e.g. tAI, GC3, CpG) using multiple regression analysis lead to inconclusive results, leaving the requirement for the exploration of alternative approaches in order to dissect the role of individual parameters, as well as to identify novel determinants of gene expression.

The practice of promoting food to children via advergames is a highly topical issue which attracts much concern due to the low nutritional value of the promoted foods. This thesis examines the effects of customised food advergames on children’s affective, cognitive and conative responses. It also investigates the role persuasion knowledge and prior brand usage have in children’s interaction with advergames. In particular, whether children’s persuasion knowledge acts as a barrier to those responses. This research is situated within the domains of marketing communications, consumer behaviour and consumer socialisation. It adopts an affect transfer theory, the Dual Mediation Hypothesis (DMH), to explain the transfer of affect from an advergame to children’s responses. Three versions of the same advergame were designed for the purpose of this thesis with different levels of customisation (i.e. control, low and high experimental conditions). An experiment among younger (5-7 year olds) and older (11¬12 year olds) children reveals that customisation in advergames has a detrimental effect on children’s affective, cognitive and conative responses. It was the control condition, without customisation options, that rendered a positive impact on brand attitudes and preferences relative to the other two experimental conditions. Persuasion knowledge does not influence children’s affective, cognitive or conative responses. This implies that children’s understanding of the persuasive intent of an advergame does not act as a barrier against its effects. Age had a significant role on children’s attitudes towards the advergame, but not on their other responses to it. Finally, prior brand usage has a positive impact on children’s responses apart from on advergame attitudes. This thesis has implications to policy and practice. It is evident that children from two distinct age and cognitive developmental groups cannot protect themselves from advergames’ effects. Therefore, regulators should broaden the scope of concern to older and younger children alike.

Social media is considered an important marketing tool for B2B companies that are operating in the current decade (Andersson and Wikström, 2017; Brink, 2017; Itani, Agnihotri and Dingus, 2017). As social media has become a well-researched topic over the last decade, it has become more popular for businesses and individuals to use (Andersson and Wikstrom, 2017; Lacka and Chong, 2016; Michaelidou, Siamagka and Christodoulides, 2011). However there are limited research on how specific industries are adopting social media (Siamagka et al., (2015). Therefore, this thesis will contribute with research on why the industrial industrys adopt social media as well as how they are using it (Ibid).   Ten industrial businesses working in Sweden have been used for the empirical data collection. A qualitative approach have been used for this study in order to satisfy the purpose. All of the interviewees have experience within social media adoption or are working with social media on a daily basis. The interviews were conducted through phone and lasted approximately 20-50 minutes.   The conclusion of this study is that academic research within this field are somewhat in an agreement with the empirical data provided within this study. The main reasons to why industrial B2B businesses are adopting social media is because businesses can reach their target customers in an easy and fast way, also the pressure from stakeholders and customers have been an important factor to why some of the practitioners within this study have adopted social media. The barriers and benefits of using social media goes hand in hand. As one of the main benefits is the communication with customers and the main barrier is the negative comments that businesses can get. Although this study has indicated that the benefits outweigh the barriers when adopting and using social media. Findings from this study has shown that LinkedIn is the most useful social networking sites for businesses to use and this statement is also confirmed with the academic research done within this field.

El objetivo general del presente trabajo es diseñar y construir un respositorio de información respecto del uso, contenido y estructura de un sitio web. Lo anterior tiene por finalidad el aprovechamiento de los datos que genera la navegación a través de un sitio, mediante la extracción de información que sirva de apoyo para la toma de decisiones en función de mejorar su estructura y contenido. La Web se ha convertido en un canal con altas potencialidades de uso para las organizaciones, mostrando importantes ventajas, sobretodo en sus aplicaciones en ventas y marketing. Es así como se ha generado una creciente necesidad de comprender las preferencias de los visitantes de un sitio, de manera de atraer su atención e, idealmente, transformarlo en cliente. Sin embargo, debido a la gran cantidad de datos generados a partir de la navegación y del contenido de un sitio, se hace muy complejo sacar conclusiones a partir de ellos. Para dar inicio a esta investigación se estudiaron los algoritmos existentes para el procesamiento de los datos de la Web, además de los distintos modelos de almacenamiento para la información construida a partir de ellos. En base a lo anterior, se desarrolló un modelo genérico para almacenar, procesar y presentar la información. Ésta se extrae a partir de datos que se obtienen mediante una estrategia no invasiva para los visitantes, utilizando para su almacenamiento la arquitectura data warehouse, que permite mantener información limpia, consolidada y confiable a partir de una gran cantidad de datos provenientes de múltiples fuentes. Posteriormente, el modelo desarrollado se aplicó a un sitio web real relacionado a la industria bancaria, de manera de probar su correcto funcionamiento y utilidad. Como resultado, se concluyó que la arquitectura implementada es efectiva para el análisis estadístico de los datos, siendo el porcentaje de conversión por objetivos el indicador más relevante para la medición del desempeño de un sitio web, pudiendo transformarse, incluso, en una dimensión del modelo de información. Se recomienda que, en trabajos futuros, se constraste los resultados de la operación de este repositorio con el de otras estrategias de obtención de la información.

One of the issues that have been debated at length in second language acquisition research circles is that of error-feedback and its desirability. Although there is as yet no conclusive evidence concerning its effectiveness in contributing towards the acquisition of a second language, a number of studies that have been conducted bear evidence to its desirability in L2 classrooms. This research then, was concerned with the way teachers of content subjects reacted to their learners' linguistically erroneous responses during oral interaction in their classes. The participants were four teachers who, with their pupils, are second language speakers of English . Three of these were content subject teachers while the fourth one teaches English. The data was collected from a class of Std 5 pupils in a rural school in the Eastern Cape where the lessons of these teachers were observed and audio-taped. Subsequently some of them were transcribed and analysed. The analysis of the data revealed that teachers in content subject classes, who teach through the medium of English showed more concern for content than for linguistic errors despite the fact that they are expected to extend the pupils' chances of second language acquisition.

Orientador: Kester Carrara / Banca: Sadao Omote / Banca: Ana Cláudia Moreira Almeida Verdu / Resumo: A literatura ilustra que alguns aspectos da linguagem são essenciais no desenvolvimento e aprendizagem de indivíduos com Transtornos do Espectro Austístico (TEA). Entre tais aspectos destaca-se o uso funcional da linguagem, como principal dificuldade de comunicação nessa população, sendo fundamental sua consideração em contexto acadêmico. Nessa perspectiva, esta pesquisa investigou o perfil comunicativo, com ênfase nos aspectos funcionais da linguagem, de alunos com TEA durante a interação com suas professoras, em salas comuns de instituições públicas. Participaram 14 alunos com TEA, de ambos os sexos, com idades entre três e oito anos, que frequentavam do maternal à 2ª série e suas respectivas professoras. Como parte do procedimento foram realizadas duas filmagens, cada qual com 30 minutos, em situações de sala de aula, que tinham entre seus objetivos promover o desenvolvimento da linguagem oral dos alunos. Para análise das filmagens, foi utilizado o protocolo de pragmática, que verificou a ocorrência de iniciativas de comunicação e o espaço comunicativo ocupado pelos alunos e professoras, as funções e meios comunicativos utilizados pelos alunos. Os resultados evidenciaram que de modo geral as professoras iniciaram mais a comunicação, ocupando maior espaço comunicativo durante a interação do que os alunos. Quanto aos meios comunicativos, todos os alunos utilizaram preferencialmente gestos e apresentaram individualidades referentes à utilização dos meios vocais e verbais. No que se refere às funções comunicativas houve ocorrência significativamente superior das funções menos interativas em relação às funções mais interativas, ou seja, em sua maioria... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The literature illustrates that some language aspects are essential to the development and learning of individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Among such aspects they point out the functional usage of language as the mainly difficult of communication in this population, being fundamental its consideration in academic context. From this outlook, this research delved into the communicative profile, with emphasis in the functional aspects of language of students with ASD during the interaction with their teachers, in regular classrooms of public institutions. Fourteen students with ASD, male and female, with ages between theree and eight, which attended from kindengarten to second grade, and their teachers took part in the experiment. As part of the procedure, two films were made, each one with 30 minutes, in classroom situations, which had as goal to promote the development of the students'oral language. To analyze the films, it was used the protocol of pragmatic, which verified the occurence of initiatives of communication and the communicative space taken by the students and teachers, the communicative means and functions used by students. The results showed in general terms the teachers often started the communication, taken more communicative space than their students with ASD during the interaction. Concerning to the communicative means, all the students preferable used gestures and presented individualities in using vocal and verbal means. Concerning the communicative space than... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att utforska möjligheten att minska resurssvinnet vid utförande av en så kallad clean-in-place-rengöring. Arbetet svarar på frågor gällande de möjligheter som finns att effektivisera rengöringsprocessen alternativt att minska medieförbrukningen genom att förkorta sköljtider. Den huvudsakliga metoden som arbetet baseras på är faktorförsök genom försökplanering. Detta är en metod för att strukturera försök med flera korrelerande faktorer. De faktorer som har förändrats med mål att göra resurseffektiviseringar är en minskning av lutlösningstemperatur för rengöring, prov av olika mängd tillsatsmedel i lutlösningen och en förkortad tid för avslutande kallvattensköljning. Analysen visar att godkända resultat för rengöring erhålls även efter genomförda förändringar. En stor del av arbetet fokuserar på förståelse av systemets uppbyggnad och funktion. Att återvinna spolvatten i högre grad och att använda en lägre lutkoncentration skulle vid vidare arbete kunna ge möjlighet att ytterligare minska resursförbrukningen. / The purpose of this degree project is to explore the possibility of reducing the use of resources in performing a so-called clean-in-place cleaning. The work answers questions about the possibilities that are available to streamline the process or to reduce media consumption by shortening rinse times in the cleaning process. The main method on which the work is based is factor attempts through trial planning. This is a method of structuring trials with several correlating factors. The factors that have been altered, with the goal of making resources use more efficient, are a reduction of the caustic temperature for cleaning, using different amounts of additives in the caustic solution and a shortened time for the last cold water rinse in the cleaning process. The analysis shows that approved results for cleaning are also obtained after changes have been made. A large part of the work has been focused on understanding the system's structure and function. Recycling waste water to a greater extent and using a lower caustic concentration could possibly allow to further reduce resource consumption.

Être professionnel peut nécessiter de trouver de l’énergie sans limite et de remédier aux manquements de la gestion. Les produits stimulants, calmants, antidépresseurs, etc., peuvent y contribuer. Cette thèse s’intéresse à ces dynamiques complexes. A partir d’une revue de littérature et d’un dispositif de recherche-action clinique, elle contribue à la connaissance des interrelations entre l’activité, la santé et les drogues. Elle montre l’existence d’usages fonctionnels multiples irréductibles à l’idée de maladie ou de dangerosité. Elle observe que la prévention officielle masque le réel et organise l’ignorance sur le rôle de l’organisation du travail dans le recours aux psychotropes. Les chiffres sur les troubles de santé des actifs et sur leurs consommations de psychotropes imposent de renouveler le management du travail et de la prévention. Nous proposons de déplacer la prévention des addictions vers l’analyse du travail et l’étude de l’usage des drogues comme un système d’activités de préservation et de reconnaissance de soi. / Being a professional may require unlimited energy and to remedy management shortcomings. Stimulants, anxiolytics, antidepressants, etc., can contribute to this. This Phd thesis deals with these complex dynamics. Based on a review of the scientist literature and a clinical research-action, it contributes to the knowledge of the interrelations between activity, health and psychotropic products. The thesis shows the existence of different functional uses irreducible to the idea of disease or dangerousness. It observes that official prevention masks reality and organizes ignorance about the role of work organization in the use of psychotropics. The figures on the health problems of the active population and on their consumption of psychotropic products require the renewal of management and prevention. We propose to shift the prevention of addictions towards labor analysis and psychotropics' use study as a system of preservation and self-recognition activities.