The sport of cycling is an ever expanding global phenomenon, drawing crowds in their thousands to watch the races unfold. Its community has a distinct vocabulary, with many terms borrowed from several other languages, principally French. This study investigates the presence of French loanwords in the language of English cycling commentators, and to what extent these loanwords are used in comparison to their English equivalents. It also examines extra-linguistic factors that could affect the commentator’s choice of vocabulary, mainly the location of the race. The study investigated the language of English commentators from live broadcast of 6 different races: 2 located in English speaking countries, 2 in France, and 2 countries where neither French nor English was the native language. All utterances of French loanwords and their English counterparts were noted and collected for analysis. The findings demonstrated a clear presence of French loanwords in the language of the commentators, with a varying degree of frequency. Some loanwords were preferred over their English equivalents, whilst others were not. The location did not seem to have a significant impact on the choice of vocabulary, with the exception of the only race held outside of Europe, where the commentators demonstrated a clear preference for English terminology over French loanwords. The analysis concluded that many different extra-linguistic factors may play a role in the commentator’s choice of vocabulary.

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The aim of the thesis New German Borrowings in the Czech Language is a confirmation of the importance of language contacts in Czech and German. The work demonstrates that acceptance of German lexical units into Czech language is a productive way of enriching its vocabulary. The use of German borrowings in different kinds of utterances and their frequency analysis show that language speakers are starting to see the position of germanisms in Czech in a neutral way, thus not negatively, as was the case in the past. I deal with the analysis of foreign language lexical units from the integral-adaptation, semantic and frequency point of view. The method of my research is targeted excerption of newspapers, where you can see how the new German borrowings are used more and more in contemporary Czech vocabulary. I focus on productivity of use of different borrowed parts of speech. In addition to the various parts of speech I also describe hybrid composites and deproprial expressions. The amount of the new German borrowings, which are collected in neologism exceptions database, demonstrates that acceptance of German words and word formation elements is an important and productive linguistic process of creating of neologisms.

System virtualization technology is widely used in computing nowadays. In embedded domain, it is used as a solution to resource sharing among independent applications. One of the areas is to apply virtualization technique to real-time embedded systems with timing constraints. Multi-level adaptive hierarchical scheduling (AdHierSched) framework is a virtualized real-time framework, which runs in the Linux operating system. Šis virtualized framework has ability to adapt the CPU partition sizes according to their need through monitoring their demand during run-time, which yields more appropriate processor assignment. However, the performance of the virtualized framework is still unknown when the budget borrowing mechanism is enabled. To this end, in this thesis, we explore a new direction for performing the adaptation of CPU partition. We design and implement a budget borrowing mechanism for dynamic adaptation of resource parameters in AdHierSched framework. Extensive simulations are performed in this thesis, which are used to study and compare di‚erent adaptation mechanisms with our approach. From the results of experiments, we conclude that when the framework works only with budget borrowing controller, the results are not as good as only running a budget controller in the AdHierSched framework. However, while running both of the controllers at the same time, the experiments results are good enough. We also analyze the overhead of the framework at the end of the evaluation. Finally, we conclude the thesis by presenting the possible future work.

Educational discourses, practices and institutions are increasingly shaped today by forces and envoys of a globalised world. Research suggests that functional integration into a neo-liberal world economy compels many nation-states to eschew indigenous educational priorities in favour of a globally structured agenda for education. This thesis explores the emergence of new educational policy responses to this agenda, with a particular emphasis on the practice of policy ‘borrowing’. While numerous studies have explored educational issues including curricular convergence and mass schooling in the context of policy borrowing, few have explored health education from a similar theoretical perspective. This thesis applies the Globally Structured Agenda for Education (GSAE) approach to the study of Uganda’s efforts to borrow an abstinence-only educational intervention as the nation’s primary HIV/AIDS prevention strategy. Uganda is regarded by many AIDS researchers and public health professionals as one of the world’s most compelling success stories in the battle against HIV and AIDS. From the early 1990s until 2003, the Ugandan government actively promoted a comprehensive approach to HIV prevention, encouraging Ugandans of all ages to observe the ‘ABCs’ of sexual health (Abstain, Be Faithful, use Condoms). Unlike the vast majority of its sub-Saharan counterparts, Uganda then experienced a rapid and extraordinary decline in rates of HIV prevalence. In 2004, however, the government of Uganda abruptly abandoned the popular ABC approach in favour of ‘policy borrowing’ PEPFAR, the model of sexual health education advocated by the United States. This exclusively promoted the benefits of abstinence until marriage. The sudden shift in education policy and public discourse in Uganda is the focus of this research. Two forms of documentary analysis are used. The first explores the borrowing process in detail, examining the interests and motivations underlying cross-national policy attraction, decision-making, implementation and ultimately, indigenisation in Uganda. The second explores the social, educational and health consequences of an abstinence-until-marriage approach in the context of Uganda’s localised AIDS epidemic. A discourse-historical approach is utilised to examine the ways in which language and rhetoric establish a narrative correlation between premarital abstinence and HIV prevention in Uganda, and to analyse the extent to which public discourse legitimately reflects the social, economic and epidemiological conditions in-country. The findings suggest the discourse on HIV/AIDS prevention in Uganda focuses mainly on (i) the severity of the national epidemic, (ii) the scope, nature and success of the ABC approach, (iii) the virtues of pre-marital abstinence, and (iv) the prophylactic inefficiency of condom use. The various arguments in support of abstinence-until-marriage education are found to be largely motivated by the political ambitions and economic aspirations of key power elites in Uganda. This finding suggests the neo-liberal, capital-driven imperatives of a global education agenda have indeed come to supersede local health needs in Uganda. The study concludes that Uganda’s efforts to halt the spread HIV/AIDS through abstinence-until- marriage education fail to adequately address the prevention needs of the nation’s adolescents and adults. This is evidenced by the fact the largest percentage of HIV-positive persons in Uganda are married, divorced and/or widowed women. Rather than marriage being seen as – in the American model – a ‘safe haven’ from the virus, it is instead the very place where Ugandans are most at risk. This has profound implications not only for education and health policy-making in Uganda, but also raises serious questions about the efficacy and relevance of ‘borrowing’ policies whose origins, ideologies and political contexts emanate from elsewhere.

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The study analyses the influence of the English language over Lithuanian and Russian lexis and explores the main tendencies. The aim of the research is to describe English borrowings in Lithuanian and Russian mass media in the last two decades. The objectives of my analysis are: to describe main factors (linguistic and extra linguistic) which influence the influx of the English borrowings; to reveal usage tendencies of the loanwords in the Russian and Lithuanian languages, and present examples of modern borrowings; to classify English borrowings semantically and structurally. The research methods used in this study are: descriptive method and content analysis. The results of the research have shown that both languages experience the influence of the English language while borrowing lexical units of different significance as a result of industrial and technological changes, new technological developments, changing attitudes, cultural transmission and other social determinants. Due to the fact, words borrowed from English represent nearly all semantic areas. Moreover, in Russian and Lithuanian languages, loanwords are subjected to various exposures to adapt them to the possibilities of a language system and the needs of those who use these languages: they acquire suffixes and/or endings of Lithuanian and Russian; they become a basis for further word-construction. In relation to this it can be stated that at the expense of borrowings, and on their basis, in the result of... [to full text] / Tyrinėjant medžiagą ir analizuojant pavyzdžius buvo įrodyta, jog abi kalbos patiria Anglų kalbos įtaką skolinant leksinius unitus. Be to, Anglų kalbos skoliniai plačiai naudojami Lietuvių ir Rusų kalbos žiniasklaidoje. Pastebėtas naujų reikšmių vystymasis dėl Anglų kalbos įtakos ir vartotojų poreikius. Tai pat tas faktas, kad skoliniai ne iš karto įtraukiami į literatūrinę kalbą yra akcentuojamas, nors jie plačiai naudojami šnekamojoje kalboje. Semantišku požiūrių naujausius Rusų ir Lietuvių kalbos skolinius galima padalinti į keletą semantinių grupių, kuriuos visiškai atspindi tas sferas, kuriuose yra didelis žmonių susidomėjimas, ir tas sferas kuriuose vyksta visuomeniniai pakeitimai. Didžiąją dalis skoliniu Rusų ir Lietuvių kalbose priklauso ekonomikai (deliveris, брокер), technikai (failas, роуминг), muzikai (singlas, римейк), kosmetikai (tattoo, типсы), paslaugoms (single room, шоппинг), kompiuteriui (hakeris, кликнуть) ir politikai (impičmentas, спикер). Be to, galima rasti nemažai skolinių susijusiu su drabužiais (bodis, сникерсы), valgiu (miusliai, спреды), teatrais (kastingas, блокбастер), žmonėmis (breikeris, киллер) ir sportu (geimas, шейкдаун). Kai kurie skoliniai Lietuvių kalboje priklauso kultūrai (pubas) ir statybai (deckas), tuo metu kai Rusu kalboje dalis skoliniu susijusi su antgamtiniais dalykais (суперме). Abi kalbos pasirenka tos skolinius nes Anglų kalbos įtaka labai didelė, ir visos svarbiausios kasdieninio gyvenimo srytis pripildyti neologizmais... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

This study aims to explore how banks evaluate investment decisions towards SMEs, through a real option approach. After analyzing 9 interviews with business advisors from four different banks, illustrations show that banks indeed use a real option way of thinking, without being aware of it as well as put more weight in certain factors namely the repayment ability. Moreover, the relationship factor shows an interesting relevance during investment evaluation towards SMEs, as better relationships lead to lower demands on factors of evaluation. In brief, the study contributes to the theory of real options as well as of practical essentiality to banks and SMEs.

This study examines attitudes towards anglicisms in Russian expressed in print media articles. Accelerated linguistic borrowing from English, a particularly visible aspect of the momentous language changes after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, has engendered a range of reactions. Print media articles spanning two decades and several central outlets are analysed to show how arguments for or against use of anglicisms are constructed, what language ideologies these arguments serve, and whether mediated language attitudes changed during the post-Soviet era. A summary of the history of Russian linguistic borrowing and language attitudes from the Middle Ages to the present day shows that periods of national consolidation provoked demands for the restriction of borrowing. Then, a survey of theories on language ideologies demonstrates that they function through the construction of commonsense argumentation in metadiscourse (talk about talk). This argumentation draws on accepted common knowledge in the Russian linguistic culture. Using critical discourse analytic tools, namely analysis of metaphor scenarios and of argumentation, I examine argumentative strategies in the mediated language debates. Particularly, the critical analysis reveals what strategies render dominant standpoints on anglicisms self-evident and logical to the audience. The results show that the media reaction to anglicisms dramatises language change in discourses of threat, justified by assumed commonsense rational knowledge. Whilst there are few reactions in the 1990s, debates on language intensified in the 2000s after Putin’s policies of state reinforcement came into effect, peaking around times of official language policy measures. Anglicisms and their users are subordinated, cast out as the Other, not belonging to the in-group of sensible speakers. This threat is defused via ridicule and claiming of the moral high ground. This commonsense argumentation ultimately supports notions of Russian as a static, sacred component of Russian nation building, and of speakers as passive. Close textual analysis shows that even articles claiming to support language change and the use of anglicisms use argumentation strategies of negativisation. Overall, a consensus on the character and role of the Russian language exists between all perspectives, emphasising the importance of rules and assigning speakers a passive role throughout.

Within the disciplines of education and political science, the phenomenon of the voluntary transfer of policy ideas or practices from elsewhere, or “policy borrowing”, is often the topic of intense debate and study. The study of policy transfer also has strong links with the field of diffusion. Scholars in these fields study cases of policy transfer to understand (1) what motives and mechanisms cause policy diffusion and transfer, and (2) how policies are adapted, or reinvented, in the process of being transferred. The majority of such studies have focused on state-to-state cases of policy transfer involving predominantly government actors. Yet, a growing but still limited number of studies have considered the ways policy entrepreneurs have initiated transfer and utilized networks to bring about and implement policy ideas taken from elsewhere. Teach First provides a unique case-study through which to investigate the role of policy entrepreneurs and networks in shaping the process of policy transfer and reinvention. Teach First launched in 2002 as a non-profit organization and innovative teacher training programme based in London. The scheme, proposed and implemented by leaders within the private sector but heavily funded by the central government, was publicly linked to the U.S. programme Teach For America (TFA). Like TFA, Teach First’s purpose was to improve the schooling of disadvantaged pupils by recruiting elite university graduates to teach for two years in under-resourced schools. My research aimed to uncover how and why this policy was first conceptualized and launched as well as how it was reinvented in the process by those individuals and groups involved. Thus, through a case-study of Teach First’s emergence, this study investigates: What roles do policy entrepreneurs and networks play in policy transfer and diffusion processes? and How are policy entrepreneurs and networks involved in reinventing policy during the transfer process? To explore these research questions, I carried out semi-structured interviews with more than 50 individuals from various sectors who were involved in the creation of either Teach First or TFA. After transcribing all interviews, I used a form of narrative analysis to reconstruct the policy story of how Teach First emerged. In the process, I uncovered and accounted for the diversity of motives, institutional pressures, and contextual factors shaping Teach First’s development with a focus on the policy entrepreneurs and networks. Drawing on previous research in policy transfer, innovation-diffusion, and institutionalism to analyze the policy story, I concluded that both policy entrepreneurs and networks were responsible for bringing about transfer of TFA to England and shaping the nature and extent of its reinvention. This temporal process was furthered shaped by the highly politicized nature of initial teacher training in England, which limited the autonomy of policy entrepreneurs and forced further adaptation of Teach First in ways that its original sponsors had not intended. I also discovered that, while the TFA model played an influential role in this process, TFA was not generally used as a guiding model during implementation. Furthermore, I argue that in the process of mobilizing support for Teach First and implementing the idea in its first year, a new network emerged and represented a potentially influential new voice in education. This study aims to contribute to (1) the knowledge of the roles of policy entrepreneurs and networks in policy innovation, diffusion, and transfer and (2) the growing but still limited research on Teach First. This study also provides a foundation for further studies of Teach For All, an organization co-founded in 2007 by Teach First and TFA, which works to spread the programme globally. Through Teach For All, at least thirty-eight other countries now have programmes modeled on TFA and Teach First, though little research has examined how Teach First came about and spread in this way. Finally, the research also illustrates the value of a methodology not often used in transfer studies – narrative reconstruction – through which data is formed into a storied narrative to account for the complexities of the contexts and the socially–constructed views of the diversity of actors involved in policy-making and transfer.