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The devolution and judicialization movements of the past thirty years have dramatically changed the nature and structure of state-federal governmental relations. States and localities are now playing a larger role in the implementation and delivery of basic government services. Many state legislatures, such as Virginia's, because of their limited sessions and inadequate staff assistance, often leave the interpretation of complex, technical matters to state and local administrators. As a result, the role of state and local administrators in public policy formulation and implementation has become increasingly important. Often, these administrators work in a complex environment marked by unclear lines of authority and ambiguous law. The question then becomes, to whom do state and local executive branch officials turn to for assistance and legal interpretation when legislation or regulatory schemes are unclear? One answer is the state and federal judiciary, however the process of adjudication is often an ineffective instrument for solving complex administrative questions. The risk is that courts will create what Lon Fuller (1964) calls an "undanceable tune," one to which none of the participants know the steps necessary to keep in time with the judicial order. Building upon what Fuller (1964) referred to as the "distinctive competence" of certain legal institutions, this paper offers the opinion writing function of the state attorney general as a viable alternative to adjudication. All state attorneys general issue opinions. These opinions can shape policy and the development of law, partly because the opinions may be the only guidance on statutory or constitutional issues in the absence of prior litigation. Building upon the French Council of State, and using the state of Virginia as a model, this dissertation examines the guiding role that state attorney general opinions can play in resolving issues of ambiguity and statutory construction in various areas of public management and administration. Specifically, this dissertation will examine the influence of Virginia Attorney General Opinions from the years 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000. The reason for choosing these years will be explained in Chapter One. The dissertation will conclude with a discussion of how state attorney general opinions contribute to the governance dialogue, as well as their potential as transmitters of what Rohr (1989) terms "regime values." / Ph. D.

Comment les citoyens reçoivent-ils et interprètent-ils les informations politiques auxquelles ils sont exposés quotidiennement ? Cette thèse s’intéresse au contexte d’exposition aux informations et met en évidence la diversité des interprétations dont celles-ci font l’objet. Elle porte une attention aux usages et en explore les implications politiques. Les résultats sont énoncés à partir d’un regard croisé entre une démarche d’analyses quantitative et qualitative. L’approche qualitative met en place un protocole d’enquête original, qui s’appuie sur des entretiens de couple réalisés en France. Les résultats portent sur l’exposition aux informations, l’attention qui leur est accordée et enfin leur interprétation. L’exposition aux informations s’inscrit, pour l’ensemble des citoyens, dans une routine quotidienne et s’imbrique dans leurs emplois du temps familiaux et professionnels. Les citoyens, quel que soit leur niveau de politisation ou leur origine sociale, ne font pas état d’une démarche intentionnelle de recherche d’informations. En conséquence, leur attention est variable car dépendante de ce contexte. Elle est tributaire des intérêts qu’ils déploient vis-à-vis du champ politique et de l’action publique mais aussi des caractéristiques de l’offre médiatique. Quatre processus d’interprétation sont identifiés. Leur diversité s’appuie sur l’existence de convictions politiques ancrées, qui guident l’interprétation, et sur les modalités de combinaison des expériences personnelle et médiatique. La thèse met ainsi en évidence les grilles de lecture que les citoyens mobilisent pour donner sens au monde qui les entoure et témoigne du rôle des informations dans leur construction. / How do citizens receive and interpret political news to which they are daily exposed? This PhD thesis deals with the context in which people are exposed to news and sheds light on the diversity of their interpretation. Emphasis is put on media uses and on the investigation of their political implications. The results are based on a mixed method approach (quantitative and qualitative). The qualitative approach offers an inventive interview protocol with French couples, in Paris region and in the North of France. The results focus on exposure to news, attention to news and interpretation. All citizens are exposed to news in daily routine, within their work and family lives. They do not seek for information, regardless of their level of political interest or their social background. Consequently, their attention to news is variable because it is dependent on this context. Not only is attention reliant on citizens’ interests in the political scene and public action but also on the way the media present and construct news. I identify four types of interpretation. Their diversity relies on deeply rooted political convictions, which guide the interpretation, and on the way personal and media experiences are combined. This PhD thesis also singles out the frameworks of interpretation used by citizens to make sense of the world around them and how information contributes to their construction.

Les maladies rares sont celles qui touchent un nombre restreint de personnes. Par conséquent, des problèmes spécifiques sont dus par cette rareté.Pour cette raison nous avons systématiquement recherché dans la littérature les publications concernant les caractéristiques des différentes méthodes mathématiques qui ont été utilisées pour l'étude des maladies rares. L'objectif est d'identifier des approches novatrices pour la recherche qui ont été, ou peuvent être, utilisées afin de surmonter les difficultés méthodologiques inhérentes à l'étude des maladies rares.Les méthodes bayésiennes sont recommandées par plusieurs auteurs et dans le cas de ces méthodes il faut introduire une loi informative a priori sur l'effet inconnu du traitement.La détermination de la loi a priori dans le modèle bayésien est difficile. Nous avons travaillé sur les méthodes qui permettent de déterminer de la loi a priori en incluant la possibilité de considérer des informations provenant des études historiques et/ou des données provenant d'autres études "voisines".D'une part, on décrit un modèle bayésien qui a pour but de vérifier l'hypothèse de non-infériorité de l'essai qui repose sur l'hypothèse que le méthotrexate est plus efficace que le corticostéroïde seul.D'autre part, notre travail de thèse se repose sur la méthode epsilon- contamination, qui se base sur le principe de contaminer une loi a priori pas entièrement satisfaisante par une série de lois provenant des informations d'autres études ayant même pathologie de maladie, même traitement ou même population.Enfin, toutes les informations a priori peuvent être résumées par la distribution a priori déterminer à partir des opinions d'experts, leur avis sont recueillis lors d'une réunion où ils ont répondu à un questionnaire qui montre leurs a priori sur les paramètres du modèle bayésien. / In recent years, scientists have difficulties to study rare diseases by conventional methods, because the sample size needed in such studies to meet a conventional frequentist power is not adapted to the number of available patients. After systemically searching in literature and characterizing different methods used in the contest of rare diseases, we remarked that most of the proposed methods are deterministic and are globally unsatisfactory because it is difficult to correct the insufficient statistical power.More attention has been placed on Bayesian models which through a prior distribution combined with a current study enable to draw decisionsfrom a posterior distribution. Determination of the prior distribution in a Bayesian model is challenging, we will describe the process of determining the prior including the possibility of considering information from some historical controlled trials and/or data coming from other studies sufficiently close to the subject of interest.First, we describe a Bayesian model that aims to test the hypothesis of the non-inferiority trial based on the hypothesis that methotrexate is more effective than corticosteroids alone.On the other hand, our work rests on the use of the epsilon-contamination method, which is based on contaminating an a priori not entirely satisfactory by a series of distributions drawn from information on other studies sharing close conditions,treatments or even populations. Contamination is a way to include the proximity of information provided bythese studies.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: Watching eyes – for better or worse (Vakande ögon – på gott eller ont?)</p><p>Number of pages: 34 (41 including enclosures)</p><p>Author: Josefine Nyberg</p><p>Tutor: Göran Svensson</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C</p><p>Period: Autumn term 2007</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The aim of this essay is partly to make a study about how people understand camera supervise, and partly discuss what their opinions are concering the subject.</p><p>Key Questions: Which or what is the mainpurpose of camerasurveillance? What does the public think about the subject? When can there be an insult against the integrity while using the cameras? What is private and what is public? What is the posibilities and threats in the future?</p><p>Material/Method: A qualitative method has been used. Four interviewes, one personale interview with a policeofficer from Uppsala and three focusgroupinterviwes with people from Stockholm, have been done. Then the results from the interviewes have been compared with earlier theories and reaserches. By reading publicdocuments, press releases and reports from the government, I have gather information for the essay.</p><p>Main results: Even if the public are aware of the cameras and knows that they allmoust allways are whatched by the electronic eye, they don´t seem to care that much about the constant surveillance. Even if they observe the cameras at first they quickly forget about them. The cameras real purpose is working fairly good, even if the public thinks that thecameras should obstruct all the crimes. Allthough the cameras are preventing manycrimes and discourage people from committing minor crime, just by its appearance.</p><p>Keywords: Attitudes, opinions, interviews, Panopticon, public, camera supervise, privacy and public.</p>

Robert Parker is an esteemed, somewhat controversial wine-critic. Since 1978, Parker has assigned every wine he tastes a score between 50 and 100. He uses this method to communicate to both consumers and producers his opinion of the quality, taste, and aging potential of the wine. Between the years 2005 and 2015, Robert Parker graded 115 wines from the French region of Provence. The goal of this thesis is to determine whether and to what extent Robert Parker’s grades affect the price of wine. Through descriptive statistics and regression analysis of Robert Parker’s grade and year of production on the average price, I assess the effects of one expert’s opinion on the price of Provençal wine. My results show that, while there is a statistically significant relationship between Robert Parker’s grade and the price of wine, the relationship between the two variables has not varied considerably over the past ten years. In addition, my results show an indifference on the part of Provençal wine-producers in regards to pricing based on the grades their wines receive from the wine-critic. This led me to the conclusion that the relationship between price of wine and grade is not as strong as hypothesized. This is an interesting finding given the prevalence of consumer reports and expert-opinion based journals for consumable goods.

The study focused on the positive or negative direction shown in 57 articles from ten English-language magazines covering the 1973 military coup in Chile, September 1 to December 31, 1973, inclusive. Magazines chosen were from the fields of news, religion, opinion, and business. Direction was determined by comparing individual thought units within articles against a category table comprising mutually exclusive pairs of thought units. Directional value of each article was determined by positive and negative ratios. Results showed a wide variation in scores, with news magazines adhering most closely to the objective ideal. Recommendations for further study included long-term study of single magazines or classes of magazines for direction, and an expanded mathematical analysis.

RESUME THE SIX-MONTH TRAINEESHIP IN THE PHARMACY FROM THE STUDENTS' POINT OF VIEW Author: Jana Najmanová Tutor: RNDr. Jana Kotlářová, Ph. D. Department of Social and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic Introduction: The six-month traineeship at a pharmacy is an obligatory course for the final year students who have been studying Pharmacy at FAF UK in Hradec Kralove. The purpose of this course is to fix the theory and let the students transform their knowledge into practical skills while preparing them to work at a pharmacy. Aim of the thesis: The evaluation of the questionnaire survey from two academical years. The summary and comparison of the opinion of final year students at FAF UK on their six-month traineeship, the pharmacy where they had been completing their practice and assessing the feasibility of the students' change proposals. The theoretical part is focused on the issue of the six- month traineeship at a pharmacy mainly in the term of legislation and current requirements. Methodology: A questionnaire survey which was created at the Department of Social and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy at the Charles University in 2007 took place to collect the data. All the respondents were the final year students of Pharmacy. The...

This study’s aim is to make visible journalistic power to form, strengthen and effect readers’ opinions. Within a Swedish journalistic discourse, this study examines how opinions take form in the news report, with what methods journalists legitimises or questions opinions and how social issues are being defined and portrayed as means to target the self-image of journalists as impartial and independent. This study applies theories of mediatisation, the mediated construction of reality, agenda setting, perception of public opinions, influence and the sources and media portrayal. I focus on the case of the refugee migration to Europe in the fall of 2015. The study analyzes daily, local and evening press such as Svenska Dagbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Sydsvenskan, Göteborgs-posten, Expressen and Aftonbladet, during the period of january 1st 2015 to december 31st 2016. The results show the power of journalists to affect the audience’s view on refugees as well as migration and their stand towards it. Further, the study presents journalistic methods to legitimise or question opinions in the news report, as well as the importence of sources when defining and portraying social issues. Furthermore, the study shows the level of the news as well as policial residence of the media to be of greater importance for this than the media form itself.