This study examines empirically the relationship of value orientation to meanspiritedness. Meanspiritedness (a collection of acts, thoughts and/or attitudes which are intentionally malicious) was defined and a scoring method was designed. The management level of self-interest in individuals as indicated by their value orientation and religious orientation was examined. Additionally, the relationship of value orientation to meanspiritedness was examined as measured by dogmatism scores, psychoticism scores, religious orientation scores, neuroticism scores and extraversion scores. Findings indicate that people in this study who valued at a Humanist rather than a Societal level scored higher in meanspiritedness. / Graduation date: 1995

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-157). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed on Feb. 5, 2007). PDF text: viii, 77 p. UMI publication number: AAT 3218191. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche format.

In the past times, luxury had been a way for the noble to show their wealth and social status off, which belongs to behaviors of the minority. However, with the times and the cultures changing, people¡¦s viewpoints toward luxury have altered. Trading up has been a prevailing phenomenon while new luxury also has come out gradually. As long as consumers regard the products as worth through the affective facet, they will be willing to make purchases with higher prices. Though luxury has nothing with the social status anymore, the value presented by luxury has overpassed what the currency can provide. This study tried to explore consumers¡¦ attitudes toward luxury through cognitive component, affective component, and behavioral component, further, to do the segmentation of consumers based on their attitudes toward luxury. In addition, this study explored whether diverse demographic segmentation will lead to varied attitudes toward luxury, and even analyzed the relation between attitudes toward luxury and buying behaviors. This study took convenience sampling. The questionnaires comprised the paper ones and the online ones, distributed on March 11th, 2007 and completed on April 6th, 2007, while there were 518 questionnaires of validity. The study result found that the attitudes toward luxury can be divided into three categories. One was the self-presenting, another was the pro-luxury, and the other was the anti-luxury. This study found that those who have positive attitudes toward luxury will purchase luxurious products more often. Besides, age and education would have a remarkable effect on attitudes toward luxury; by contrast, gender, occupation, income, and residence failed to. Finally, this study recommended that the corporations should choose marketing strategies according to consumers¡¦ attitudes toward luxury. As for those who had negative attitudes toward luxury, the companies should avoid using ¡§luxury¡¨ to be the main point for the advertisements. The corporations had to reinforce the intrinsic value within luxurious products and the added value, and further took care of the traditional elite luxury market and the mass luxury market.

Because the fresh milk market is growing gradually to be mature in Taiwan, the major firms of the fresh milk industry try to find the other way to make profit. They try to segment the fresh milk market by the higher price or some new functions of fresh milk. This study is to discuss the consumer¡¦s behavior in fresh milk market. According to the attribute of buying effecting factors, it can class the consumers as 1.group of product-distinction; 2.group of marketing-distinction; 3.group of subjectivity-distinction. These groups can be helpful to understand consumer¡¦s buying effecting variables and the acceptance to higher price fresh milk. The conclusions of this study are presented as follows: 1.Fresh¡BHigh Quality and 100¢H Nature, these three factors of buying effecting are most important to the fresh milk consumers. 2.Leading firms in fresh milk industry actively promote their higher price products, but the consumer can¡¦t aware these products easily and keep low will to buy that. 3.According to the attribute of buying effecting factors, it can class the consumers as 1.group of product-distinction; 2.group of marketing-distinction; 3.group of subjectivity-distinction. The conclusions above are significant to the management in the following aspects. 1.Understanding the consumer¡¦s behavior, the firms could match the real needs of the consumers. 2.To launch a new product must have the unique selling proposition (USI), and you can earn the consumers. 3.The firms in fresh milk industry could make different marketing strategies to the distinct consumer groups.

Studies aimed at the development of indigenous low cost star tracker and gyroless attitude and angular rate estimation is presented in the thesis. This study is required for the realization of low cost micro satellites. A target specification of determining the attitude with accuracy (3σ) of 0.05 degrees and attitude rate with accuracy (3σ) in the range of 50rad/sec at a rate of 10 samples/second in all the axes is set as a goal for the study. Different sensor arrays available in the market are evaluated on the basis of their noise characteristics, resolution of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) present and ability to work in low light conditions, for possible use in the hardware realization of star tracker. STAR1000 APS CMOS array, manufactured by Cypress Semiconductors, qualified these performance criteria, is used for the simulation study. An algorithm is presented for scanning the sensor array, detection of star image and retrieving the information concerning the photoelectron counts corresponding to a star image. The exact designation of the center of the star image becomes crucial as it has direct implications on the accuracy of the estimated attitude. Various algorithms concerning the centroid estimation of a defocused star image on the sensor array to subpixel accuracy are studied and Gaussian Weighed Center of Gravity algorithm is adapted with some modifications and an accuracy of 0.039 pixels is obtained in both horizontal and vertical direction of the array. A one-to-one relationship is established between the stars obtained in the field-of-view (FOV) of the star tracker with the stars present in the star catalog resident in the star tracker through star identification algorithm. A star identification algorithm which relies on the interstar angles and brightness of the stars is developed in this thesis. The interstar angles of the stars visible in the FOV of the star sensor is recorded, compared with the inter-star angles made by the stars selected in the catalog, based on initial brightness match with stars formed on image plane. After identification at the initial epoch, consequent instants can drive information from the previous matches so as to decrease the computational complexity and storage requirement for the subsequent instants. The memory constraints and computational overhead on the processor and the dynamic range of the image detector used in the star tracker are the limiting factors. The stars thus identified with the stars in the catalog are used for the estimation of attitude. A point solution to the attitude estimation problem is computed using a least square based algorithm called ESOQ-2. The algorithm for centroiding of star images and ESOQ-2 for finding the point solution satellite attitude is coded and tested on Da Vinci based emulator. This exercise shows that it is possible to implement above algorithm for real time operations. Estimation of attitude at a given epoch using algorithms like ESOQ-2 does not minimize the noise and error covariance as the attitude estimated at each instant of time depends only on the measurement taken at that particular instant. So a Kalman Filter (KF) based estimation using Integrated Rate Parameter (IRP) formulation called SIAVE algorithm, is adapted, with some modifications, for the estimation of incremental angle and attitude rates from vector observations of stars. From the point solution of attitude estimation problem of the satellite, the incremental angle and angular rate at successive time steps are predicted using a linear KF and refined with the measurements from the stand alone star tracker, taken at discrete time steps, using the SIAVE algorithm. The sensor noise is modeled from the characteristics of STAR1000 sensor array used in the algorithm in order to make the simulations more realistic in nature. The optimality of Kalman filter is based on the assumption that the state and measurement noises are white gaussian random processes and the state dynamics of the plant is completely known. However, for most real systems, modeling uncertainties are present. So a robust state estimator based on H∞ norm minimization is devised. The H∞ filter, based on game theory approach is used to minimize the worst case variance of noise signals with the only assumption on the noise signals that they are energy bounded. The aim is to find the feasibility of using H∞ filter for the estimation of incremental angle and attitude rate of the satellite. The studies shows that H∞ filter with proper tuning can serve as potential estimation scheme for the attitude and angular rate estimation of the satellite. It is found that both Kalman filter and H∞ are able to meet the specified accuracy desired from low cost accurate star sensor.

The aim of this literature study was to describe nurses' attitudes toward female patients who have been victims of spouse abuse. In this descriptive literature study, fifteen scientific articles were used in the result. The articles were of both qualitative and quantitative nature. The nurses felt that domestic violence was a social problem and that they had an important role in the detection of such violence. Several had themselves experienced violence but couldn‟t believe that so many in their vicinity or in the care were affected. Nurses thought that abused women had low self esteem and factors such as economics and children played into why the woman stayed in the violent relationship. The nurses often had a lack of education about the subject and felt uncomfortable in the situation that routinely screening all female patients for domestic violence. Education increased awareness and nurses felt more confident to talk about domestic violence with their female patients. The study found barriers to routine screening, as time constraints and lack of opportunity to talk separately with the patient. More education and knowledge of the subject is desirable so these women can be discovered and be helped by the health services.

Objective: From the patient’s perspective describe communication difficulties, which can arise, and how they are handled in their contact with public health care and illustrate their needs of communication. Method: A study of literature was carried out to receive a background and an insight in previous research concerning the subject area. Twelve women with hearing loss was asked to complete a questionnaire, with open questions, regarding communication difficulties in health care situations. Sample: For the literature review, scientific papers were selected via the database, PubMed using relevant keywords. Seven were selected for closer review. For the survey study twelve women were asked to participate which ten of those responded. Results: The study of literature shows that communication difficulties occur in public health care between patients with hearing loss and the nursing staff. These are mainly due to lack of information, lack of knowledge and comprehension regarding hearing disorders. Also, there is a lack of knowledge about methods in communication and factors regarding environment and surrounding. This affects the patients with a not sufficient quality of the care in comparison with the care for hearing patients. The causes of communication problems above are confirmed by the questionnaire study. Most of the participants experienced insecurity in their contact with public health care due to communication difficulties and they expressed that they often meet unsympathetic nursing staff. This can create dejectedness among the patients. The results from both literature review and the survey shows that education to all nursing staff, regarding communication and meeting of patient with hearing loss, can solve the problems. Conclusions: Special education efforts to nursing staff regarding communication with patients with hearing loss are needed. That can give conditions to the health care service to achieve the goal about a good and high qualitative care.

Europe is taking on a new meaning to many people these days and is now referred to as the European Union. For those countries, which are not yet members, to join the European Union is a very important and defining decision. Romania is one of the “next to be” members. With Romania being the next inline to join the Union, large corporations and enterprises are turning to Romania for new opportunities. It might be interesting for Swedish or foreign companies to open a business or start investing in Romania. That step is a very important one because there is no specific literature, which can provide relevant information about the Romanian business market and management style. These potential investors or business executives have no idea about the project management procedures or the implementation of technical projects inside the Romanian economy. To provide the answer to these questions more extensive and deeper studies will have to be done in the future. The purpose of this thesis is to become a reference in the future for those companies which are considering doing business in Romania. The goal of this research is to provide valuable and reliable answers concerning the attitude of Swedish and Romanian leaders in meetings with their employees. These attitudes build on the differences in culture and nationality. The leadership of companies in Romania and Sweden has very different meanings in those countries. In the beginning I will provide definitions to the terms that will use: attitude, culture, leadership and meeting. The respondents were chosen based on their previous leadership positions in the institution they used to work. This research will demonstrate the aspects that Swedish leaders have or do not have in common with their Romanian colleagues.