This thesis examines the problems of building on Toronto’s main streets. These arterial mixed-use corridors that define much of the public face of the city are the subject of ongoing residential intensification efforts through the Official Plan policies of the City of Toronto. The form that this new development takes can either reinforce and improve existing streetscapes and housing stock, or it might –as is already happening– replace the long-established vital urban patterns of main streets with very different, less versatile, and less diverse building forms with a diminished standard of both urban and interior living space. Part I considers main streets at the urban scale, while Part II is a discussion of housing quality and architectural aims that informs a series of proposed prototypical building designs to be located on a site on Queen Street West as an example of site conditions found on main streets in a variety of locations throughout the city. To understand the urban implications of main street building, this study looks at the specific historical factors that have shaped Toronto’s main streets, and looks at why they continue to have value and have become a focus for intensification today. It revisits key episodes in Toronto’s redevelopment planning over the last four decades, particularly the St. Lawrence Neighborhood Plan, the Ataratiri Plan, and the Housing on Toronto’s Main Streets Initiative. The precedent historical research points to the need for small increments of development on main streets in order to maintain the economic, social, and visual diversity that have made them such a vital and dynamic component of the city in the past. This scale of development calls for new building types to respond to the very particular site conditions of main streets. Modern building types that are typically used in these situations are ill suited to respond to these conditions, provide a limited range of unit types, and are leading to compromises of urban and interior spatial quality when applied to these sites. The architectural discussion centers on the observation that traditional main street lot patterns, despite inherent rigidity and rationality, have nonetheless proven to be a functionally flexible urban structure that has accommodated and encouraged a remarkable diversity of uses, architectural forms, and individual interpretations over time. Comparable complexity and diversity of spatial qualities can be found in a variety of architectural design approaches, including those of Adolf Loos’ ‘Raumplan’, Rudolf Schindler’s ‘Space Architecture’, or Herman Hertzberger’s concept of ‘Polyvalent Form’. The spaces created by these architects are an architectural analogue of the dynamic, richly varied urban characteristics of Toronto’s existing main streets. Both create the opportunities for individual expression and continually varied spatial experience that better reflects the complexity of both urban and domestic life. These precedents of architectural form -imbued with qualities of multiplicity, heterogeneity and reinterpretability- propose a counterpoint to the standard of functionally rigid, spatially limited and typologically predictable buildings and living spaces currently available. The proposed building designs are intended to widen the options for dwelling within the city, while offering an update and intensification of main streets that reinforces rather than replaces desirable existing urban patterns.

Only 6 autochthonous cases of human Chagas disease have been documented in the U.S.A., however, as many as 5% of immigrants from Latin America may be infected with the etiologic agent, Trypanosoma cruzi. The parasite has been isolated from a variety of wild mammals, particularly in the southeastern region of the U.S.A. The goal of our study was to determine if the sylvatic cycle of T. cruzi infection occurs in Kentucky, and, if present, to assess the prevalence of infection in Warren and Barren counties. Raccoons and opossums were live-trapped between June and December, 2007. Animals were anesthetized with isoflurane, and blood samples were collected using a vacutainer system. Sera were frozen at -80oC for subsequent analysis, and whole blood samples were inoculated, in duplicate, into liver infusion tryptose (LIT) medium and cultured at 27oC. Seventeen T. cruzi isolates from raccoons have been positively identified by hemoculture. A total of 25/44 (57%) raccoon samples were found to be positive by hemoculture or serological analysis. In Warren County 18/25 (72%) of raccoons tested positive for T. cruzi and 7/19 raccoons (37%) in Barren County were positive for the parasite. Eighteen of 43 (42%) of the sera collected from opossums in Warren County and 3 of 5 (60%) from Barren County were judged to be positive by either enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or indirect immunofluorescence assay tests (IFAT). There were no positive hemoculture results for the opossum samples. The infection rates found in the current study for raccoons were slightly higher than those reported in previous studies in the U.S.A. However, the overall prevalence of T. cruzi in opossums (determined by serological analysis) was consistent with previous studies performed in the southeast. To our knowledge, this is the first report of T. cruzi from the state of Kentucky.

Bakgrund: Baby Friendly Hospital Initiativ bygger på Tio steg till lyckad amning och lanserades år 1991 i Sverige. Efter detta sågs en ökning av amningsfrekvensen. Nu 20 år efter införandet av Tio steg till lyckad amning sjunker amningsfrekvensen. Studier har visat att amningsutfallet påverkas av hur amningen initieras samt det stöd kvinnan får från vårdpersonal, partner och närstående. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva nyblivna mödrars erfarenheter av förberedelse och initiering av amning. Metod: En enkätstudie med slutna frågor där det fanns möjlighet till egna kommentarer på ett flertal av frågorna. Enkäten delades ut till nyblivna mödrar vid efterkontrollen på kvinnohälsovårdsmottagningen. Det var 98 kvinnor som deltog i studien. Svaren analyserades med statistikprogrammet SPSS version 18. Resultatet beskrivs med deskriptiv statistik och Chi-2 test användes. Resultat: Totalt ammade 64,9 % av kvinnorna helt vid efterkontrollen och 23,7 % ammade delvis. På kvinnohälsovårdsmottagningen hade de flesta kvinnorna diskuterat amning med sin barnmorska. Kvinnorna sökte även information själva på internet, i böcker, tidningar och hos närstående. Förstföderskorna sökte information i större utsträckning än omföderskorna. Drygt hälften av kvinnorna hade upplevt ett tillräckligt stöd från vårdpersonalen kring amningen och majoriteten av kvinnorna uppgav att deras partner var positivt inställd till amning. På BB hade 42,8 % av barnen tillmatats med bröstmjölksersättning och av dessa hade ca hälften fått det på medicinska indikationer och hälften hade fått det utan medicinsk indikation. Majoriteten av barnen använde tröstnapp vid efterkontrollen. Slutsats: Till stor del följs Tio steg till lyckad amning, men på vissa punkter ses brister i följsamheten. Kvinnorna hade önskat mer information och stöd i initieringen av amningen. Nyfödda barn tillmatades med bröstmjölksersättning utan medicinsk indikation och många barn introducerades för tröstnapp inom 2 veckor från födelsen.

Sammanfattning Examensarbete, turismekonomprogrammet, Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet, 2FE40E, HT 2011 Författare: Christopher Dahl och Benita Johansson Handledare: Thomas Karlsson Examinator: Krister Bredmar Titel: Dags att hållbarhetsredovisa - Polyplank AB, en fallstudie   Bakgrund: Studier har påvisat att vi överkonsumerar jordens resurser i en allt snabbare takt. En ökad medvetenhet kring dagens miljöproblem har bidragit till att företag i större utsträckning aktivt arbetar för en hållbar utveckling samt för att ta ansvar i samhället. Begreppet Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) behandlar företags samhällsansvar utifrån tre perspektiv; miljömässigt, ekonomiskt och socialt. Arbetet inom dessa områden presenteras av många stora företag idag i en hållbarhetsredovisning. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) är den organisation som bistår med riktlinjer för upprättning av den här typen av redovisningar.   Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att ta reda på vad GRI:s riktlinjer och rådande begrepp säger om hållbarhetsredovisning samt att utifrån vårt fallföretag Polyplank AB:s förutsättningar rekommendera lämpligt innehåll i en eventuell hållbarhetsredovisning.   Metod: Vårt fallobjekt, Polyplank AB, är ett företag som verkar inom tillverkningsbranschen och utmärks genom deras miljövänliga produkter. Det empiriska materialet till denna studie har erhållits genom intervjuer med nyckelpersoner inom företaget samt genom observation av företagets verksamhet.   Analys och diskussion: Resultatet av denna studie visar de faktorer som ligger bakom vår rekommendation för vilka indikatorer som Polyplank AB bör rapportera i en eventuell hållbarhetsredovisning. Exempelvis har intressenternas synpunkter och önskemål en stor del i vilken information som bör tas med i en redovisning, men det förekommer även andra krav som bör beaktas.   Slutsats: Avslutningsvis rekommenderas Polyplank AB tillämpa GRI:s redovisningsnivå C, vilket vi menar att företaget har goda förutsättningar för att göra. Vi tror att upprättandet av en hållbarhetsredovisning skulle kunna leda till positiva konsekvenser för företaget, utan att vara för resurskrävande.   Nyckelord: Hållbar utveckling, Hållbarhetsredovisning, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Polyplank AB.

Contemporary studies in international management field conceptualize subsidiaries as semi-autonomous entities. By involving in entrepreneurial undertakings and strategic activities, subsidiaries could contribute strategic value to parent multinational corporation (MNC). Distinguishing from previous researches derived from entrepreneurship theory and done by Birkinshaw and his colleagues, this study incorporated human capital theory and knowledge-based view (KBV) to fulfill the existing research gap and enlarged our understanding of subsidiary entrepreneurship. This research proposed two models to unlock and testify the underexplored phenomenon of subsidiary entrepreneurship. In the first model, this research incorporated human capital management in MNCs context and testified that not merely top management team (TMT) entrepreneurial leadership and subsidiary entrepreneurial culture were critical antecedents of subsidiary¡¦s strategic initiative, but the human resource management (HRM) practices of subsidiary talent management played an important mediator to generate the entrepreneurial system. In the second model, this study demonstrated the cross-field integration and synthesis of entrepreneurial literatures, human capital theory and knowledge-based view and expressed a more comprehensive illustration of strategic entrepreneurship. This study certified that absorptive capacity could facilitate subsidiary¡¦s entrepreneurial culture and further enhance subsidiary¡¦s strategic initiative. Moreover, subsidiary¡¦s practices of talent management could facilitate its absorptive capacity and further contribute to subsidiary¡¦s strategic outputs. By analyzing the empirical data collected from 202 MNCs¡¦ foreign subsidiaries in Asian area, this study testified that the subsidiaries which could contribute strategic value creation for parent MNCs should equip multilayer of initiative-takings: the local distinctive capability, market initiative and knowledge outflow. Furthermore, the HRM practices of talent management in subsidiary played critical mediating role on both the development of organizational capability, improvement of absorptive capacity and the enhancement of subsidiary strategic initiative. TMT entrepreneurial leadership was the core engine which could activate subsidiary¡¦s mechanisms to facilitate the activities of strategic value creations.

For an enterprise, the appropriate flow rate of employees helps the metabolism of an organization and prevents an organization from becoming rigid. The appropriate flow of employees helps the enhancement of management efficiency of an enterprise. If the flow rate is too high, however, it will cause the loss of employees, the high expense of recruiting and training, and the low morale of employees. Moreover, it will cause the deficiency of human resource. In addition to general resignation mentioned in the above, another phenomenon of collective-resignation is arising. Collective-resignation has caused the crisis of management. Therefore, how to avoid collective-resignation is an important issue of an enterprise. This research discusses how the organizational commitment influences the initiative collective-resignation intention and passive collective-resignation intention. The object of this research is mainly on the employees in enterprises. The number of issued questionnaires is 750, and finally the number of returned questionnaires is 406. The rate of returning is 54.1 percent. The statistics results in the analysis as the following: 1.Governmental commitment has great influence on collective-resignation intention. Among them, the regulative commitment has positive effect on initiative collective-resignation and negative effect on passive collective-resignation (following the supervisor). The emotional commitment has negative effect on passive collective-resignation (following the supervisor). The sustained commitment has positive effect on passive collective-resignation (following the colleague). 2.The loyalty to supervisor has remarkable effect on collective-resignation. Among them, the dimension of recognition internalization is the most remarkable. 3.The effect of the loyalty to supervisor has more influence on passive collective-resignation than organizational commitment. 4.The collective-resignation intentions are divided into three dimensions: initiative collective-resignation intention, passive collective-resignation intention (following the supervisor) and passive collective-resignation intention (following the colleague).

<p>Inledning: De senaste åren har det blivit allt viktigare för företagen att ta mer ansvar och att vara mer genomsynliga för alla intressenter. För att vara mer transparent kan företagen upprätta en speciell hållbarhetsredovisning som består av tre delar; miljö, socialt ansvar samt finansiell rapportering. De flesta av de stora och mest välkända företagen i Sverige har påbörjat någon form av hållbarhetsarbete. Det vanligaste ramverket med riktlinjer är i idag GRI (Global Reporting Initiative).</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka om hållbarhetsredovisningar upprättade av företag som är anslutna till GRI är av bättre kvalitet än andra hållbarhetsredovisningar som är upprättade av företag som inte är anslutna till GRI, samt hur väl riktlinjerna följs av de anslutna företagen.</p><p>Metod: I den här studien används en kvantitativ metod för att få en bred studie där generella samband kan hittas. Den data som används är sekundärdata i form av årsredovisningar och hållbarhetsredovisningar. Analysen sker med hjälp av beskrivande statistik, konfidensintervall samt Spearman’s rho.</p><p>Resultat: Studien kom fram till att de företag som är anslutna till GRI generellt sett upprättar hållbarhetsredovisningar av bättre kvalitet än de företag som inte är anslutna till GRI. Det varierar dock kraftigt i vilken utsträckning de anslutna företagen följer GRI:s riktlinjer. Några av de anslutna företagen redovisar mycket bra men flera av de anslutna företagen redovisar väldigt dåligt. Studien av företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar delades in i tre olika delar. Det visade sig då att de GRI anslutna företagen inte redovisar bättre på alla delar, utan de ekonomiska rapporterna redovisades bättre av de företag som inte är anslutna till GRI. Det sociala och miljömässiga ansvaret redovisades bättre av de GRI anslutna företagen. Undersökningen visade också att det finns ett samband mellan dels företagens storlek och hållbarhetsredovisningens kvalitet och dels även antal sidor som hållbarhetsredovisningen omfattar gentemot hållbarhetsredovisningens kvalitet.</p>

Efforts to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign petroleum encourage the production of fuels from bioenergy crops. Recent energy mandates have therefore “opened doors” for alternative feedstock sources for ethanol production. Switchgrass is a candidate feedstock. Under the University of Tennessee’s Biofuels Initiative, the University of Tennessee, partnering with DuPont-Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, contracted for the production of switchgrass with local farmers to guarantee biomass feedstock supply for an ethanol conversion research facility. This study used methods borrowed from the social psychology literature in combination with economic theory to analyze factors influencing switchgrass farmers’ intentions to continue growing switchgrass after contracts with the granting agent expired. Understanding what motivates producers to make long term commitments to switchgrass production as an energy crop may be important information for private investors who will rely on a fixed supply of switchgrass.A probit model was used to determine the factors affecting producers’ intentions to continue producing switchgrass after their contract expires. Results suggest that community perceptions about the production of switchgrass as a dedicated energy crop may have an important impact on farmers’ intentions to make a long-term commitment to produce switchgrass. Therefore, educating and involving community and extension personnel may have a positive impact on farmers’ decisions to make long-term commitments to grow switchgrass as a dedicated energy crop.

The traditional issue selling process refers to strategic actions taken at a subsidiary in order to gain attention from the HQ. This study aims to broaden the theories on issue selling to also cover internal issue selling, which refers to the individual level of issue selling within a subsidiary. Further is attention and initiative taking worth investigating when studying issue selling, whereas these underlying constructs of issue selling are highlighted in the paper. For this specific study we have performed a case study with L’Oréal Sweden to investigate how the individuals are selling issues within the subsidiary. This micro-level focus of the issue selling process have the potential to contribute to an understanding of the process and the underlying constructs of issue selling on a macro perspective. The findings of this study indicate a tendency that issue selling exists on a subsidiary level. Thereby it could be argued that ideas and initiatives raised by the individuals within a subsidiary have the potential to generate in strategic and organizational improvements on a macro perspective for the MNC.

Abstract According to Wilkerson and Lang (2003, p.1) with approximately "90% of schools, colleges, and departments of education using portfolios of one form or another as decision-making tools for standards-based decisions regarding certification or licensure (as well as NCATE accreditation), it is appropriate to explore the legal and psychometric aspects of this assessment device." This study was conducted to examine how well the authentic assessments created in the Chalk and Wire ePortfolio initiative, which was created to provide authentic assessments of the Accomplished Practices, relate to the measures in the Professional Knowledge subtests on Florida Teacher Certification Examination. The sample was comprised of 294 graduating student teachers from a single department in the College of Education for the 2009/2010 school year at a large southern university. Multiple regression analyses were employed to examine the relationship between authentic assessments (i.e. critical tasks) in Chalk and Wire and performance on the subtests of the Professional Knowledge Test on the Florida Teacher Certification exam while controlling for gender, ethnicity and overall GPA. Only two of the independent variables were statistically significant from the 12 models examined. The scores from the Professional Knowledge subtests on Florida Teacher Certification Examination for Diversity (AP5) and Technology (AP12) were statistically different for gender, with females scoring higher than males on both. The results provided little evidence of concurrent validity between the authentic assessments of the Chalk and Wire ePortfolio initiative and the Professional Knowledge subtests on Florida Teacher Certification Examination.