This study is motivated by the need to look continually for ways to improve Griffith University’s learning assistance services so that they meet the changing needs of stakeholders and are at the same time cost-effective and efficient. This study uses the conceptual tools of cultural-historical activity theory and expansive visibilisation to investigate the development and transformation of learning assistance services at Griffith University, one of Australia's largest multi-campus universities. Cultural-historical activity is a powerful theoretical framework that acknowledges the importance of dimensions such as cultural context, local setting, collective understanding, and the influence of historical variables on interactions in settings. Expansive visibilisation is a practical four-stage process that was used in this study to make visible and analysable the work context of the Learning Assistance Unit. The study uses these conceptual tools to illustrate how learning assistance services at the University have moved through several stages of historical development and that historical variables, such as the political setting and physical location of services continue to influence current work practices. The investigation involved gathering data through interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders in order to map the University's Learning Assistance Unit as an activity system that appears to have separated out from the overall activity system of the University. It involved making visible problems and tensions in the activity system, and identifying ways of improving future practice. The study reveals problem clusters and underlying tensions amongst the interacting activity systems of the Learning Assistance Unit, faculty, library and student. These problem clusters relate to different understandings about the purpose of the Learning Assistance Unit and the role of the learning adviser, the difficulties in offering a quality service on a restricted budget, and tensions between contextualised and de-contextualised learning assistance. The study suggests that resolving these tensions depends on staff taking an active role in critically examining their practice, in particular the way that they collaborate with key stakeholders in the learning environment. The dissertation concludes by suggesting that one way forward is to expand the activity system on its socio-spatial, temporal, moral-ideological, and systemic-developmental dimensions (Engeström, 1999c).

Univ., Diss.--Regensburg, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 368-384).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-118).

Thesis (doctoral)--Technische Universität, Darmstadt, 2002/2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

This is the first Canadian study to determine current procedures and practice in for undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts English-speaking Canadian public universities. and to determine Arts advisors' perceptions of the impact of academic advising on student development and retention. A questionnaire was mailed to 82 academic advisors at 41 English public universities across Canada. Responses received represented 73% of eligible universities. Personal interviews followed with nine volunteers. Results showed that academic advising practice is not guided by formal policy that links the service to university and faculty goals. Instead, advising is evolving in response to the call for university accountability. Advising practices appear to be changing to meet the expectations and demands from students that their undergraduate experience facilitates the achievement of academic goals in association with career goals and other personal goals. Despite the lack of guiding policy on Arts academic advising, there is considerable amount of consistency in current practice across Canada. Advising is primarily a Faculty responsibility and the responsibility for delivering general academic advice has largely shifted from professors to professional advisors. Advisors have a broad range of responsibilities and extensive decision-making authority, especially in the areas of program planning with students, and in interpreting and applying policies and procedures. The hours that students can gain access to advising differs among Arts advising units. However, the methods of delivering advice are similar. In all advising units the student to advisor ratio is extremely high. Most units are responsible for providing the service to thousand of students. Arts advisors are also extensively involved a variety of outreach and liaison activities directed at potential and current students and the broader university community and the public. Arts academic advisors believe that advising improves student persistence to degree completion and hence also improves university retention rates. At the same time, some advisors perceive that central administration does not recognize the importance of the service and that this lack of recognition combined with heavy advising loads, complex policy and program regulations, and shrinking resources affects the quality of academic advising. Despite the difficulties mentioned by advisors, many advising units have initiatives in place to expand their academic advising service through joint strategies with other student services that will link students' short-term and long-term academic, career and life plans. The study concludes with recommendations on developing academic policy and programs, as well providing suggestions for further research.

Final theses of Master Degree studies 68 pages, 23 illustrations, 10 tables, 43 literature sources, 13 affixes, Lithuanian language. The object of study – advisers of Lithuanian Lithuanian Agricultural advisory service. The area of study – Needs of professional development. The aim of study – Having analysed advisers needs of in-service training to work out a model of agricultural advisers in-service training. The objectives: 1. Analyse in-service training theoretical and practical aspects in Lithuania and abroad. 2. Conducting surveys to analyse in-service training theoretical and practical aspects in Lithuania and abroad. 3. Identify advisors‘ needs and requests for the programmes of in-service training. 4. Produce standards and requirements for advisors to qualify. Methods of study: analysis and summary of literature, systematization and analysis of primary and secondary data, generalisation, comparison of practical experience, calculation and patterning. After studying scientific literature and examining aspects of advisers in-service training in Lithuania and abroad and carrying out the analysis of survey conducted the standards and requirements for advisors to qualify were produced and the model for in-service training was carried out.

Hedge funds report performance information voluntarily. When they stop reporting they are transferred from the "live" pool of funds to the "defunct" pool. Consequently, liquidated funds constitute a subset of the defunct pool. I present models of hedge fund survival, attrition, and survivorship bias based on liquidation alone. This refines estimates of predictor variables in models of survival, leads to attrition rates of hedge funds to be roughly one half those previously thought, and produces larger estimates of survivorship bias. Survival models based on liquidated funds only, lead to an increase in survival time of 50 to 100 percent relative to survival based on all defunct funds. / In addition to refining estimates of survival time, it is useful to examine how the double fee structure of hedge funds and Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA) affects the incentives of their managers. Young CTAs are usually very small --- they hold few financial assets --- and may not meet their operating expenses with their management fee alone, so their incentive is to take on risk and post good returns. As they grow, their incentive to take on risk diminishes. CTAs in their fifth year diminish their volatility by 25 percent relative to their first year, and diminish returns by 70 percent. We find CTAs to behave more like indexers as they grow, concerned with more with capital preservation than asset management. / Operational risk is a major cause of hedge fund and CTA liquidation. In the banking industry, regulators have called upon institutions to develop models for measuring capital charge for operational losses, and to subject these models to stress testing. Losses are found to be inversely related to GDP growth, and positively related to unemployment. Since losses are thus cyclical, one way to stress test models is to calculate capital charge during good and bad economic regimes. We find loss distributions to have thicker tails during bad regimes. One implication is that banks will likely need to increase their capital charge when economic conditions deteriorate.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-114).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed September 20, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-132).