With the collapse of the Soviet Union, humanitarian intervention became an important pillar in the emerging new world order. From 1989 to 1995, 96 violent civil confrontations have occurred, but 91 of them did not result in humanitarian interventions. Here comes the question: Why? Why there were interventions in Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo and not in Rwanda, the Sudan, and Tajikistan? These are the main questions that the following study aims to answer. Particularly, the issue of American humanitarian intervention is scrutinized. The casual factors of interventions are examined to explain the selectivity of American Humanitarianism. Furthermore, a theory building is initiated to outline a model of variables which will allow to explain the combination of which casual factors leads to which form of intervention or non-intervention.

In the 1830s, students at Oxford University began using the word coach as a slang expression for a tutor who carried a student through an exam (Coach, 2011). Nowadays, the word is seen as a metaphor for a person supporting another person to achieve an imagined goal (Johansson & Wahlund, 2009). Hilmarsson (2006) says that everyone acts as a coach from time to time, and Strandberg (2009) argues students in Sweden today want to be coached. However, it is hard to find schools where they claim they practice coaching. Because the word coach is ubiquitously used, many who today work with coaching are in fact inappropriately trained (Grant, 2010; Williams, 2008). Thus, by using a questionnaire as well as interviewing two students and a coach, I wanted to investigate whether coaching made any difference to how students perceived their English learning. 63 students and one coaching teacher participated in this study, where the findings demonstrated that there were other aspects which had a higher impact on students‟ perceptions of their English learning than the terminology used to describe the educational method practiced in their particular school.

Ubiquitous media communications technology necessitates democratic and critical media literacy education for developing an active 21st century polity. This study analyzed the context of democratic and critical media competencies in national curriculum standards across Australia, England, and the United States. This, based on Lefebvre’s (1991) conception of conceived space, where standards operate as manifest educational policy and as a basis for establishing good practice. The study employed a multi-theoretical approach to textual analysis, within Bereday’s (1964) comparative structure of inquiry. A critical policy lens supported the contextualization of ideological influences that frame democratic and critical media literacies in standards, per Bay-Cheng, Fitz, Alizaga, and Zucker’s (2015) neoliberal subscales. A purposive sample of civics and citizenship, English/English language arts, and media arts/studies was employed. Differences across three main indicators were identified: socio-cultural and youth-based concerns, personal growth via media production and other skills development, and reasoning and communication skills improvement. The neoliberal influences on curricular standards were subsequently explored across three emerging themes: identity politics, problem-based and critical inquiry experiences, and the inclusion of digital new media in curriculum inquiry. Though recognized in the countries’ standards as multifaceted and complex, each obfuscates identity in some way. Both England and the United States inadequately confront race, class, gender, socio-economic status, cultural commodification, and youthbased issues. Though not overtly neoliberal, the Australian standards present identity hegemonically. The role of media is somewhat siloed from the curriculum’s conceptions of identity and active citizenship across all three countries. The English standards are least adept at developing learners’ understandings of the influence of media on identity development, whereas both England and the United States over-emphasize text to the neglect of new media understandings. An apolitical view of media literacy, accompanied by techno-economic terminology, is pervasive in U.S. standards. Despite a counter-critical approach to the framing of its curriculum priorities, Australia presents the most balanced view of democratic/critical media citizenship. England’s standards reflect neoliberal-communitarian citizenship and largely neglect critical questioning. Whereas the United States takes a similarly cosmopolitan view of citizenship to Australia and England, the standards fail to comprehensively explore the links between digital democracy and political engagement. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The study on luxury consumers is always connected to their drives behind consumption. Why people buy luxury products is an interesting question. This thesis investigates influencing forces behind luxury consumer behavior, in a comparative case study on Chinese and Finnish consumers. Luxury consumption is not a new phenomenon, but in some countries, like China and Finland, the luxury market is still growing since many brands are newly entering these markets. At the same time, new generations have become luxury consumers so these markets are quickly changing.Researches have been made on luxury consumer behaviour in China and Finland. However, there is a lack of updated information available about this subject, especially about Finnish luxury consumers. Furthermore, the driving forces behind the luxury consumption are not the same in different countries. In a competitive industry like luxury fashion, the marketing tactics have to be adapted to specific market conditions in order to succeed. The purpose of this thesis is to gain updated information about Chinese and Finnish luxury consumers and investigate forces behind their luxury consumption. The study focuses on three important influencing forces including culture, motivation and brand equity of Chinese and Finnish luxury consumers.The investigation shows that Chinese luxury consumers, in terms of culture, are more collective and have higher power distance than Finnish consumers; other's influence and emotion have greater impact on Chinese luxury consumers than that on Finnish consumers; in comparison with Chinese consumers, Finnish consumers are more easily motivated to buy luxuries for special time such as holidays or for giving gifts; Chinese luxury consumers are shown to have lower brand loyalty, awareness and association than Finnish consumers. / Program: Master in Fashion Management with specialisation in Fashion Marketing and Retailing

The purpose of this study was to determine if there had been a significant change in the academic achievement, as measured by Grade XII grade-point averages, of Alberta's matriculation graduates since the accreditation of Alberta high schools in 1973. The experimental population consisted of 100, 1971-72 and of 100, 1976-77 matriculation graduates who had graduated from schools in the rural school jurisdictions in Education zone 6; and of 100, 1971-72, and of 100, 1976-77 matriculation graduates who had graduated from schools in the Medicine Hat urban school jurisdiction. All of the students in the experimental population had completed their freshman year at the Medicine Hat College the year following their graduation from high school. The variables analyzed in this study were: (1) Departmental Examination Grade XII grade-point averages, (2) Teacher-assigned Grade XII grade-point averages, (3) college freshmen grade-point averages, and (4) zones (rural and urban). Correlation coefficients were calculated between Grade XII grade-point averages before and after the accreditation of Alberta high schools. Results indicated that the correlation coefficients ranged from .36 to 50. The Grade XII grade-point averages which showed the highest correlations with college freshmen grade-point averages were those which had been obtained on Departmental Examinations. The Fisher's Zr transformation statistical test indicated, at the .05 level of significance, that there was no significant difference between the zones' correlation coefficients before and after accreditation. The two way analysis of variance test results indicated that there was no significant mean difference between Departmental Examinations Grade XII grade-point averages and teacher-assigned grades. There was, however, a significant difference at the .01 level, between the rural and urban zones' matriculation graduates' Grade XII grade-point averages. The t test showed that there was no significant mean difference between the rural and urban zone's matriculation graduates' Grades XII grade-point averages before accreditation, but after accreditation there was a significant mean difference at the .01 level. The two-way analysis of variance statistical test results showed no significant mean difference in the Medicine Hat College's freshmen grade-point averages prior to or after accreditation.

<p>The research explores the marketing strategies for Chinese local hotels after doing the comparative study and analyzing the operations of Accor and Jin Jiang based on the Marketing Mix theory. The improving strategies are varied, which includes the product, promotion, etc. Offering guidance for the whole Chinese local hotels are the ultimate objective of the research.</p>

This paper presents a comparison of optimization algorithms for constrained damping (CLD) patches’ layout to minimize the maximum vibration response of the odd modes, which constitutes the dominant acoustic radiation, of a simply-supported beam excited by a harmonic transverse force. An analytical model based on Euler-Bernoulli beam assumptions is derived first to relate the displacement response of the beam with bonded CLD patches and their layout. Four different nonlinear optimization methods/algorithms are then respectively used to optimize the CLD patches’ locations and lengths with aim of minimum displacement amplitude at middle of the beam. The considered methods include subproblem approximation method, the first-order method, sequential quadratic programming (SQP) and genetic algorithm (GA). The efficiency of each considered optimization method is evaluated and also compared in terms of obtained optimal beam displacement. The results show that GA is most efficient in obtaining the best optimum for this optimization problem in spite of highest computation efforts required to improve its stability. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

The research explores the marketing strategies for Chinese local hotels after doing the comparative study and analyzing the operations of Accor and Jin Jiang based on the Marketing Mix theory. The improving strategies are varied, which includes the product, promotion, etc. Offering guidance for the whole Chinese local hotels are the ultimate objective of the research.

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One of the major issues associated with taxation are the costs incurred by taxpayers when they comply with their tax obligations, this is particularly important for smaller business taxpayers. Compliance costs are found to be regressive, falling with disproportionate severity on smaller businesses. This trend can be found across the globe and more importantly, in New Zealand. Prior research has shown that the severity of the regressiveness has increased over time. The current, “one-size-fits-all”, approach used in the New Zealand tax system, and others alike, have created undue complexity for small businesses. This study reviews small business tax regimes and concessions currently implemented (or proposed) in different countries to relieve the compliance burden for smaller businesses. Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States have either implemented a separate tax regime, or offers tax concessions to smaller business taxpayers. New Zealand on the other hand, presents minor ad hoc tax concessions for small business taxpayers, but since 2009, there have been proposals to change this system. This study evaluates and compares all the implemented (or proposed) regimes and concessions of the selected countries. Following from the case studies, interviews are conducted with tax professionals that have worked closely with smaller businesses, in order to shed light on the possibility of implementing a similar regime in New Zealand. The findings show that a small business tax regime has many avenues to consider, however, there is general consensus that suggests small business taxation should be kept as simple as possible. This thesis puts forward a baseline for further discussion and development of a small business regime to reduce compliance costs for smaller businesses.