This minor field study has explored what factors cause vulnerability to community members living in informal settlements exposed to localized urban flooding. Particularly, the effects of flooding that women living in Bwaise Parish III, Kampala, Uganda have to encounter were studied. Eight weeks were spent in Kampala, Uganda for field work, which included interviews and a workshop with community members from Bwaise Parish III, interviews with scientists at Makerere University and thesis writing. Generally, small-scale disasters surface because of poor urban management. The results showed that inadequate urban planning was affecting the poor that were living on marginal lands. Bwaise Parish III had emerged on a location that was both hazardous and unhealthy. The analysis showed that poor people were limited in their options of risk limitation because of their lack of basic capabilities. Women in Bwaise Parish III were affected by flooding directly and indirectly through the loss of livelihoods and belongings and through time spent getting water out of their houses. Women were generally disproportionally affected by flooding because of their vulnerabilities such as lower socioeconomic status and responsibilities that confined them to their homes. The way forward in order to mitigate localized flooding impacts would entail reducing vulnerabilities, strengthening capabilities and developing infrastructure. / Denna Minor Field Study har undersökt vilka faktorer som orsakar sårbarheter för samhällsmedlemmar som bor i informella bosättningar som exponeras av småskaliga  översvämningar. Det som studerades var effekterna av dessa översvämningar och hur kvinnor i Bwaise Parish III i Kampala, Uganda drabbades. Åtta veckor tillbringades i Kampala för fältarbete som innehöll intervjuer och en workshop med samhällsmedlemmar från Bwaise Parish III, intervjuer med forskare vid Makerere Univeritetet samt uppsatsskrivande. Generellt sätt så brukar småskaliga katastrofer uppstå på grund av dålig stadsförvaltning. Resultaten visade att bristande stadsplanering påverkade de fattiga som levde på marginella marker och att Bwaise Parish III låg på en plats som var både farlig och ohälsosam. Analysen visade att fattiga människor var begränsade i sina möjligheter att minska sina risker på grund av att de saknade grundläggande förutsättningar. Kvinnor i Bwaise Parish III påverkades av översvämningar både direkt och indirekt genom förlusten av försörjningsmöjligheter och tillhörigheter och genom att de var tvungna att spendera tid med att få bort vatten från deras hem. I allmänhet drabbas kvinnor oproportionerligt av översvämningar på grund av deras sårbarhet såsom lägre socioekonomisk status och ansvar som begränsar dem till deras hem. Vägen framåt för att minska småskaliga översvämningar och konsekvenser skulle innebära att minska sårbarheten för samhällsmedlemmarna, öka deras förutsättningar och utveckla en fungerande infrastruktur.

Science centres are one of the best opportunities for informal study of natural science. There are many advantages to learn in the science centres compared with the traditional methods: it is possible to motivate and supply visitors with the social experience, to improve people’s understandings and attitudes, thereby bringing on and attaching wider interest towards natural science. In the science centres, pupils show interest, enthusiasm, motivation, self-confidence, sensitiveness and also they are more open and eager to learn. Traditional school-classes however mostly do not favour these capabilities. This research presents the qualitative study in the science centre. Data was gathered from observations and interviews at Science North science centre in Canada. Pupils’ learning behaviours were studied at different exhibits in the science centre. Learning behaviours are classified as follows: labels reading, experimenting with the exhibits, observing others or exhibit, using guide, repeating the activity, positive emotional response, acknowledged relevance, seeking and sharing information. In this research, it became clear that in general pupils do not read labels; in most cases pupils do not use the guides help; pupils prefer exhibits that enable high level of interactivity; pupils display more learning behaviours at exhibits that enable a high level of interactivity.

The purpose of this evaluation is to develop a framework that will help in planning and implementing the mobile sport exhibition, increase visitor satisfaction and aid At Bristol in building successful exhibits. The evaluation mainly focuses on visitor interaction with exhibits. It is believed that learning does occur in science centres and museums. The evaluation will therefore find out if learning occurs in the Sports exhibition and if so, the nature of the learning outcomes. The evaluation also discusses advantages and disadvantages of travelling exhibitions and identifies the characteristics of good exhibits that form the basis of the framework.From the results, an indication is that children make the larger proportion of visitors to Sportastic. Their age ranges, under 10 and 10 to 15 years constituted 21% and 30% respectively. The three most enjoyed exhibits are the Sprint Challenge (running), BATAK (test your reaction and Hot Shots (football). Visitors say these exhibits are enjoyed because they are fun, competitive, entertaining, interactive and hands-on. Skateboard Challenge and Skeleton Bob are among the exhibits least enjoyed since they are reported to be boring and uncomfortable to use. The learning outcomes from the exhibits are; increased knowledge about balancing, reaction, pulse and strength.

Many pedagogues believe science centres to be a good complement to the more formal school teaching. For a visit to a science centre to be as educational as possible, there is a need for pre-visit information of some sort, a guided visit, and post-visit work. Many science centres offer loan services of different kinds. At Navet, a science centre in Borås, teachers can borrow boxes with experiments connected to the different themes they provide. The experiments are supposed to be a continuation of the visit and help settle the knowledge gained during the visit. This thesis is an evaluation of how the boxes function in the schools, and what the teachers think of them. The study was conducted through questionnaires and interviews with both teachers and the staff at Navet. The results of the study are very positive. Many teachers have been involved with Navet from the very beginning and they see a visit to Navet as an integrated part of their teaching. Some boxes work better than others and some might need clearer information, but overall the teachers see the boxes as timesavers, as a way to vary their teaching more easily, and as a help for teachers not specialized in mathematics and science.

The purpose of this study was to investigate pupils’ knowledge about science and what role science center is playing as a medium of communication to increase knowledge among students. This study also tried to find out pupils’ interaction: how they use science center as a source of scientific information, what they learn from their visit to a science center, their pattern of communication with it. This project also measured attraction, holding and learning power of exhibits of the science center at Dalarna University in Borlänge and learning power of planetarium program and slide show of Stella Nova Planetarium at Dalarna University.The subjects of this study consisted of students of class seven and eight and teachers of an urban school in Borlänge, Sweden. To find out students’ learning in a science center a pre and post visit test were conducted through questionnaires. Interview method by questionnaires was also used to explore pupils’ interaction with science center.The results of this study show that students learn by their visit to a science center but learning was not statistically significant (0.05).Girls learnt better than boys. School classes that have better pre-knowledge about science before a visit to a science center learnt worse than other classes having less pre-knowledge. Girls and boys interact with a science center in different ways. Science center is playing important role as a science communicator.

The relationship between economic performance and support for the incumbent government varies across voters and electoral contexts. While some of this variation can be explained by factors that make it easier or harder to hold politicians accountable, an additional explanation is that the electoral importance of economic issues varies systematically across groups and contexts. Because issues that are personally important tend to be more easily accessible when voting, we prose that exposure to economic shocks generates higher incentives to place more weight on economic conditions when voting. We test this hypothesis using archived and original survey data from Argentina, Mexico, and Peru. The analysis demonstrates that economic vulnerability enhances the economy's salience. Specifically, poverty generates incentives to cast an egotropic vote while wealth, insecure employment, informal employment, and exclusion from governments welfare programs enhances sociotropic voting because these groups have greater stakes in the national economy. By implication, elections in developing countries with large numbers of vulnerable voters should be more strongly contested over economics despite the weak institutional environment that potentially undermines the ability of voters to hold politicians accountable. Aggregate elections returns and the CSES survey support this proposition and demonstrate that economic voting is substantially more common in Latin American than in Western Europe or North America. Thus variations in economic voting provide opportunities to not only learn about the conditions under which elections can serve as mechanisms of accountability but also a laboratory to model the process of preference formation and the demands voters place on their representatives. / Dissertation

The study applied for a social network analysis tool and HLM method to analysis cross level dataset which will specify an integrated ¡¥meso¡¦ framework of linking diversified relationships and employees¡¦ attitudes and behavior within the work group settings. The effective sample size of this study collected by whole completed survey involved 317 employees within 26 different workgroups representing diversified industries in Taiwan. This study provided evidence that density of informal development network (informal network, advice network, and mentoring network) are related to both employees¡¦ intention to stay and individual job performance. As hypothesized, both In-degree centrality of advice network was positively related to individual job performance. Perceived career success was positively related to in-degree centrality of advice network. In-degree centrality of friendship network was negatively related to intention to stay. Furthermore, Density of mentoring network will be positively related to intention to stay and individual job performance. Density of advice network was related negatively to individual job performance and density of friendship was related positively to individual job performance. The effect of in-degree centrality of advice network on individual job performance will be partially mediated by mediating variable - perceived career success as well as the effect of in-degree centrality of friendship network will be partially mediated by mediating variable - perceived career success.

The purpose of this study is to review the use of educational resources at National Science and Technology Museum (NSTM) by Kaohsiung junior high school science & technology teachers. Using judgemental sampling, 260 questionnaires were sent out to science & technology teachers who taught at junior high schools in Kaohsiung. A total of 172 completed questionnaires were returned. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson¡¦s correlation. Six insights were gained from this study. First, results show that in reality, the usage rates of the resources available at the NSTM among teachers are quite low. Second, The teachers possess a low level of knowledge and understanding with regard to the resources available at the NSTM. Third, The teachers have a very favorable view of the usage of the resources offered by the NSTM. Fourth, the use of the educational resources at NSTM, the knowledge associated and the attitude towards it vary depending on the teachers' gender, educational background and teaching experience. Fifth, the frequency of usage of the resources, the knowledge and attitude are all positively correlated. Sixth, NSTM¡¦s active involvement in providing more services, expanding its facilities and supporting the logistics of the field trip may increase the teachers¡¦ willingness to use its resources.

Processing public complaints belongs to informal relieving system. It is a part of generalized administrative litigation system and different with petition, appeal and litigation which are parts of formal relieving system. Since the procedure of petition, appeal and litigation is unfriendly, time wasted and very complicated, people prefer to raise their complaints through internet channels due to its convenience, quickness and efficiency. This article includes six chapters totally. The first chapter is a preface which states the cause, method, purpose, range and limit of this study. The second chapter introduces the source, meaning, reason, classification, characteristic and function of the public complaints. The comparison between public complaints and petition, appeal, litigation or national compensation is made. The third chapter discusses the aspect of legal change about public complaints at the first, and then describes the feature of public complaints processed by Kaohsiung City Government. The fourth chapter takes five cases to explain the feature and function of processing public complaints. The fifth chapter introduces the situation of public complaints in Japan and Singapore and compares their public complaint institution with Kaohsiung City Government's. The sixth chapter is the conclusion. The processing of public complaints was generally treated as political affairs, but it is getting the same importance as formal relieving system such as appeal and litigation and so forth after the public complaints was embraced in the chapter 7 of the Administration Procedure Law. From the study of this article, people can comprehend the local government more clearly, especially the situation of public complaints processed by Kaohsiung City Government. At the same time, people can know better about how to defend their own rights and finally the performance of government is going to be enhanced.

The objective of this thesis is to examine the political modernization experience of the Uzbeks. In order to do that, first, this dissertation critically analyze the modernization theory, and second, the identity- and socio-political transformation of Uzbeks in the pre-modern and modern eras. The political modernization of Uzbeks and its relation with the peculiar social-political structures, as well as the impact of Tsarist and the Soviet rule on those structures are examined. Moreover, the dissertation analyzes the emergence of an Uzbek political identity and its influence on the post-Soviet independent Uzbekistan. The main argument of this dissertation is that the Uzbek experience under the Tsarist and Soviet rule has inevitably transformed the Uzbek society and achieved relative success in changing the traditional forms into ostensibly modern ones. However, despite the successful political modernization during the Soviet era, the specific socio-political organization, clans and kinship structures inherent in the Uzbek society succeeded adapting and even transforming modern institutions and structures externally imposed by the Soviet. These informal traditional structures emerged as strong institutions in the post-independence era. Moreover, the dissertation claims that the transition and modernization approaches to Post-Soviet Uzbekistan failed in understanding the peculiar socio-political structures and their impact on informal politics in independent Uzbekistan.