The aim of the present thesis was twofold, first to map the semantic memory decline in Alzheimer patients over time, second to take the patient’s perspective and create a multifaceted picture of the individual with Alzheimer’s disease through the study of memory, awareness, central coherence and emotions. Further issues concerned how Alzheimer individuals handled their cognitive erosion in everyday life and if they were well calibrated with their spouse in disease related matters. Two studies were performed, the first involved a longitudinal study of sematic deterioration, the second had a mixed methods design involving both quantitative and qualitative measures as in neuropsychological assessment and interviews. Through the longitudinal study it could be concluded that the nature of semantic deterioration is best described as loss of memory information rather than problems in accessing the information. It was further concluded that semantic concepts gradually lose their specific features during course of illness. The results from the second study revealed that the Alzheimer individuals were aware of their disease although they could not foresee the implications of their cognitive shortcomings in their everyday life. They evidenced weak central coherence, in that they were unable to infer details into a meaningful whole. This implies that they perceive their surrounding world in a fragmented way as consisting of separate objects rather than a comprehensible context. Concerning emotions it was found that they responded to negatively valenced words in the same way as normal ageing individuals, although being impaired in their response to positively and neutral words. Finally, the Alzheimer individuals and their spouses were not well calibrated regarding disease related issues. The findings of the present thesis have important clinical implications and gives valuable input to the understanding of the individual with Alzheimer’s disease. / Föreliggande avhandling hade två huvudsyften; dels att kartlägga försämringen av semantiskt minne hos Alzheimerpatienter över tid; dels att ta patientens perspektiv och skapa en mångfacetterad bild av individen med Alzheimers sjukdom. Fyra begrepp studerades i relation till detta, nämligen minne, medvetande, central koherens och emotioner. Ytterligare aspekter som studerades var hur Alzheimerindivider hanterar sina kognitiva tillkortakommanden i sin vardag samt hur väl kalibrerade de är med sin make/maka angående sjukdomsrelaterade frågor. Två studier genomfördes varav den första var en longitudinell studie av semantisk minnesförsämring och den andra hade en ’mixed methods’ design, inkluderande både kvantitativa (neuropsykologiska tester) och kvalitativa (intervjuer) metoder. Resultaten från den longitudinella studien avslöjade att semantiska begrepp som inte längre är välrepresenterade hos individen har gått förlorade snarare än att det skulle vara från om att individerna inte kan plocka fram informationen. Vidare kunde konstateras att semantiska begrepp gradvis tappar sina nyanser i takt med att sjukdomen fortskrider. Den andra studien visade att Alzheimerindividerna var medvetna om sin sjukdom och sina minnesproblem men att de inte kunde förutsäga vilka problem deras kognitiva tillkortakommanden skapade i deras vardag. De konstaterades ha svag central koherens vilket innebär att de ser sin omgivning på ett fragmentariskt sätt utan att kunna få ihop de olika objekten runt omkring sig till en meningsfull kontext. Vad gäller emotioner så kunde konstateras att Alzheimerindivider reagerar likadant som normalt åldrande individer på negativt laddade ord men att de är signifikant försämrade i förmågan att känna igen positiva och neutrala ord. Alzheimerindividerna och deras make/maka var inte väl kalibrerade vad gäller sjukdomsrelaterade frågor. Avhandlingens resultat har viktiga kliniska implikationer och ger ett värdefullt bidrag till förståelsen av en individ med Alzheimers sjukdom.

For students with learning disabilities, positive academic achievement outcomes are a chief area of concern for educators across the country. This achievement emphasis has become particularly important over the last several years because of the No Child Left Behind legislation. The content area of mathematics, especially in the higher order thinking arena of algebra, has been of particular concern for student progress. While most educational research in algebra has been targeted towards remedial efforts at the high school level, early intervention in the foundational skills of algebraic thinking at the elementary level needs consideration for students who would benefit from early exposure to algebraic ideas. A key aspect of students' instruction with algebraic concepts at any level is the degree and type of preparation their teachers have received with this content. Using a mixed methods design, the current researcher investigated the usage of the Developing Algebraic Literacy (DAL) framework with preservice special education teacher candidates in an integrated practicum and coursework experience. Multiple survey measures were given at pre-, mid-, and post- junctures to assess teacher candidates' attitudes about mathematics, feelings of efficacy when teaching mathematics, and content knowledge surrounding mathematics. An instructional knowledge exam and fidelity checks were completed to evaluate teacher candidates' acquisition and application of algebraic instructional skills. Focus groups, case studies, and final project analyses were used to discern descriptive information about teacher candidates' experience while engaging in work with the DAL framework. Results indicated an increase in preservice teachers' attitudes towards mathematics instruction, feelings of efficacy in teaching mathematics, and in the content knowledge surrounding mathematics instruction. Instructional knowledge also increased across preservice teacher candidates, but abilities to apply this knowledge varied across teacher candidates', based on their number of sessions working with students within their practicum site. Further findings indicate the desire of preservice teachers to increase the length and number of student sessions within the DAL experience, as well as the need for increased levels of instructional support to enhance their own experience. This study provides preliminary support for utilizing the DAL instructional framework within preservice teacher preparation experiences for future special educators.

Problem definition and methodological approach Companies seek the highest possible level of performance and competitiveness. In order to reach this goal, the company's location has to provide a number of so called location factors to offer the optimal business environment. Traditionally, this includes numerous criteria (e.g. traffic connection, markets for labour, sales and education) that are important for the individual economic success of an enterprise. Accordingly, there is a catalogue of various location factors that determines new companies' choice of and established businesses' satisfaction with their location. As legal requirements force the companies to interact with the local public administration concerning enquiries, applications and permits, the municipal administration also seems to influence the choice. Accordingly, the study addresses the question whether the public administration needs to be included as an independent key element in the theoretical discourse of local factors. To do so, the relevance of municipal administration is explored from the companies' perspective. In addition, the analysis questions the influence of local business development agencies on the location satisfaction. Besides the theoretical discussion of aspects of both administration science and economic geography, the analysis primarily includes a survey of municipal administrations, companies and local business development agencies and is thus incorporates multiple perspectives. The chosen methodological approach uses a mixed methods design in which qualitative and quantitative survey methods are connected in several ways and are also partly recursively. The research objectives are a theoretical description of the municipal administration as a local factor on the one hand and the presentation of practical approaches to improve the mentioned local factors by optimizing administrative services on the other hand. Theoretical foundations and insights An introductory discussion will illuminate the interdisciplinary background of the research in administration science and geography in order to define the problem in terms of the theory. A brief historic outline will then show that the importance of public administration for companies' location decisions has been sufficiently acknowledged by neither administration science nor geography. The theoretical approaches of New Economic Geography and New Public Management reveal that the nature of the interaction at a location is gaining importance. Thus, it becomes clear that the public administration is currently transforming into a service provider for companies. This move is also characterized by a growing “entitlement mentality” within the companies that now expect better service quality from administration. Numerous determinants of social and economic development such as globalisation, municipal financial crisis and administrative integration, just to name a few, reinforce this transformation. It will be shown that this development influences the location choice made by companies and is thus also affecting aspects of companies' location satisfaction concerning municipal administration. Empirical analyses The empirical analyses take up the implications of the theoretical considerations and look at the relevance of municipal administration and business development services for location decisions. In order to do so, the employees of communal services as well as the companies have been polled in contrasting surveys. The analyses point out that municipal administration service has a high relevance for location satisfaction but nonetheless does not meet the companies' requirements. Furthermore, there is the realistic danger of companies relocating due to constant insufficient administrative service, which would imply loss of workplaces and falling tax revenue for the municipality. Formative features of the administration as a local factor are several service criteria concerning administrative procedures. Of highest importance is the processing time of enquiries and applications. This point is even more important to the companies than the legal reliability of the information provided. The empirical results furthermore prove an overall transformation of the companies' “entitlement mentality” towards the local administration. The authorities' employees are very well aware of their importance but not of the negative ratings given by the local companies. Even though both parties describe similar quality expectations for administrative procedures, the administration employees are not able to provide the best possible service due to internal processing problems or legal barriers. Local business development agencies and their services are in a similar situation. Assessment of the relevance of local business development varies, but the overall rating is rather low. The companies wish the institutions to have more power to enforce processes within authorities as well as to offer a bundling of procedures. Conclusions for theory and practice Concerning the theoretical discourse, these results mean an inevitable modification and extension of the classic local factors model to include the influence of municipal administration as a separate factor. For questions of practical administration, the results show that reliable quality criteria are essential for the optimal location satisfaction of companies. To meet these service demands, changes in process management and bundling of procedures at key positions such as entrepreneurial service agencies have proved as suitable measures for a modernization of administration. Nevertheless, considering the increasing virtualization of service processes in public administration, it remains uncertain in what way the local significance of municipal administration services will develop in future.

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Purpose – The aim of this thesis is to explore the possibility of text mining social media, for consumer insights from an organizational perspective. Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory, single case embedded case study with inductive approach and partially mixed, concurrent, dominant status mixed method research design. The case study contains three different studies to try to triangulate the research findings and support research objective of using social media for consumer insights for new products, new ideas and helping research and development process of any organization. Findings – Text mining is a useful, novel, flexible and an unobtrusive method to harness the hidden information in social media. By text-mining social media, an organization can find consumer insights from a large data set and this initiative requires an understanding of social media and its building blocks. In addition, a consumer focused product development approach not only drives social media mining but also enriched by using consumer insights from social media. Research limitations/implications – Text mining is a relatively new subject and focus on developing better analytical tool kits would promote the use of this novel method. The researchers in the field of consumer driven new product development can use social media as additional evidence in their research. Practical implications – The consumer insights gained from the text mining of social media within a workable ethical policy are positive implications for any organization. Unlike conventional marketing research methods text mining is social media is cost and time effective. Originality/value –This thesis attempts to use innovatively text-mining tools, which appear, in the field of computer sciences to mine social media for gaining better understanding of consumers thereby enriching the field of marketing research, a cross-industry effort. The ability of consumers to spread the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) using social media is no secret and organizations should now consider social media as a source to supplement if not replace the insights captured using conventional marketing research methods. Keywords – Social media, Web 2.0, Consumer generated content, Text mining, Mixed methods design, Consumer insights, Marketing research, Case study, Analytic coding, Hermeneutics, Asynchronous, Emergent strategy Paper type Master Thesis

Family language policy (FLP) focusses on how languages are dealt with within the home; typically how languages are used and how they are maintained or promoted by family members. The present study investigates families living in the UK, where one parent is a native English speaker, and the other a native speaker of another language, the minority language. By use of a mixed-methods design, utilising questionnaires, interviews and logs, this paper answers the questions: what are the reported language practices of children and parents in bi- or multilingual families, what ideologies about FLP do parents in these families possess and what strategies do families reportedly employ in their homes. Through a nexus analysis approach, the paper establishes connections between the historical bodies, the interaction orders and the DIP of the families in order to account for their language behaviours in the home. The nexus analysis suggests that although parents show positive attitudes towards minority language use, it is the macro-level societal factors that are most powerful in determining language use within the home. That is, space plays an important role in choice of language practices. This finding suggests that children need more minority language exposure outside the home, therefore this paper suggests that the UK government could promote and encourage minority language maintenance through the implementation of language policy.

Background: Information Communication Technologies (ICT)-mediated support can reduce family caregiver burden and may bridge service gaps caused by time constraints and language or cultural barriers. (Non)-usage behaviour can be explained using Andersen’s Behavioural Model of Health Service Utilization, Venkatesh’s Unified Theory of Use and Acceptance of Technology, Eysenbach’s Law of Attrition, and Wilson’s and Chatman’s Information Behaviour Theories. Purpose: This study aimed to describe and explain (non)-usage behaviour of ehealth services among Chinese caregivers. Method: This two-phase study used a mixed methods design involving 46 Chinese caregivers who cared for a family member with dementia. Usability of the ICT tools designed in the study was tested. Phase I participants (N=28) had access to a bilingual information site and personalized email support from professionals. Phase II participants (N=18) were randomized to use one of three enhanced features. Pre- and post-intervention data were collected, and qualitative interviews were conducted. Results: The Phase I ICT tools supported the core functions without major usability issues. Perceived efforts to use the ICT-mediated services influenced the consent decisions of Phase I caregivers (p=.036). Caregivers initiated service earlier if they had a higher acceptance of the service (p=0.017). Frequent users of email support experienced a decline of perceived burden compared with an escalation of perceived burden by non-users (p=0.023). An older age, greater caregiving competence, and lower English or computer proficiency explained non-usage behaviour. Requirements were identified to enhance the Phase I ICT tools. In Phase II, a test of three enhanced features showed there was no major usability issue. The intervention study found the enhanced features did not influence email use as hypothesized. Qualitative analysis showed usage patterns were explained by caregiver needs, caregiving beliefs, personal capacity, social support, ICT factors, and style of use. Non-users preferred Chinese to English compared with users (p=0.046). Integrating the theories and empirical findings, three concepts were developed to explain (non)-usage behaviour: usage in context, usage paths, and stages of use. Conclusion: Usage and non-usage behaviour can be explained by the service needs in the caregiving context, the use of non-ICT-mediated resources, and the access barriers to Internet use. Use of ICT-based support can be beneficial to caregivers if they do not drop out of the service.

Background: Information Communication Technologies (ICT)-mediated support can reduce family caregiver burden and may bridge service gaps caused by time constraints and language or cultural barriers. (Non)-usage behaviour can be explained using Andersen’s Behavioural Model of Health Service Utilization, Venkatesh’s Unified Theory of Use and Acceptance of Technology, Eysenbach’s Law of Attrition, and Wilson’s and Chatman’s Information Behaviour Theories. Purpose: This study aimed to describe and explain (non)-usage behaviour of ehealth services among Chinese caregivers. Method: This two-phase study used a mixed methods design involving 46 Chinese caregivers who cared for a family member with dementia. Usability of the ICT tools designed in the study was tested. Phase I participants (N=28) had access to a bilingual information site and personalized email support from professionals. Phase II participants (N=18) were randomized to use one of three enhanced features. Pre- and post-intervention data were collected, and qualitative interviews were conducted. Results: The Phase I ICT tools supported the core functions without major usability issues. Perceived efforts to use the ICT-mediated services influenced the consent decisions of Phase I caregivers (p=.036). Caregivers initiated service earlier if they had a higher acceptance of the service (p=0.017). Frequent users of email support experienced a decline of perceived burden compared with an escalation of perceived burden by non-users (p=0.023). An older age, greater caregiving competence, and lower English or computer proficiency explained non-usage behaviour. Requirements were identified to enhance the Phase I ICT tools. In Phase II, a test of three enhanced features showed there was no major usability issue. The intervention study found the enhanced features did not influence email use as hypothesized. Qualitative analysis showed usage patterns were explained by caregiver needs, caregiving beliefs, personal capacity, social support, ICT factors, and style of use. Non-users preferred Chinese to English compared with users (p=0.046). Integrating the theories and empirical findings, three concepts were developed to explain (non)-usage behaviour: usage in context, usage paths, and stages of use. Conclusion: Usage and non-usage behaviour can be explained by the service needs in the caregiving context, the use of non-ICT-mediated resources, and the access barriers to Internet use. Use of ICT-based support can be beneficial to caregivers if they do not drop out of the service.

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