The purpose of this study was to determine the learning styles of preparatory school students from Gazi University and examine the relationship between students&rsquo / learning style preferences (LSP) and faculty students will study in, gender, proficiency level of English and achievement scores on listening, reading, grammar, and writing in the English Course. The instrument, Index of Learning Styles (ILS), was administered to 367 randomly selected students. As for the data analysis, descriptive statistics portrayed the frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations, the t test was conducted to see whether students&rsquo / achievement scores differ according to their LSPs and the Crosstabs procedure was conducted to investigate whether the LSPs of the students at Gazi University differ according to faculty they will study in, gender and level of proficiency. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between students&rsquo / LSPs and faculty, gender, level and achievement scores.

The aim of this study was to identify the reasons of parents&rsquo / preferring Curriculum Laboratory Schools (CLSs) for their children&rsquo / s education and to investigate whether the students attending Curriculum Laboratory Schools are satisfied with the physical, instructional and social opportunities (services) offered at these schools. The sample of the study consisted of 440 seventh grade students and 14 parents from seven curriculum laboratory schools in the province of Ankara. Two instruments were used for data collection / interview questions for parents and a questionnaire for students. To analyze quantitative data, descriptive statistics such as frequency analyses and percentages were conducted. The open-ended questions in the parents&rsquo / interview were analyzed through content analysis. The results indicated that parents preferred these schools for several reasons including convenient location, technological opportunities, physical conditions and instructional opportunities. However, the availability of the opportunities was not as defined in the CLS model. Nevertheless, the students who were attending CLSs were moderately to highly satisfied with the services provided in the CLSs.

In a production-based general equilibrium model, I study the impact of time-to-build and time-to-produce technology constraints and inventory on asset prices and macroeconomic quantity dynamics. A time-to-build constraint captures the delay in transforming new investment into productive capital; a time-to-produce constraint captures the delay in transforming productive capital into final products. Empirically, I find that the U.S. economy in aggregate exhibits approximately a three-quarter time-to-build and a four-quarter time-to-produce constraint. These delays in the production process introduce short-run risks in the economy where inventory accumulation facilitates consumption smoothing over time. Using this structure for time-to-build and time-to-produce constraints, I numerically calibrate a production-based general equilibrium model where the representative investor has recursive preferences over consumption and inventory. The model delivers first and second moments of macroeconomic quantities and asset prices consistent with the data. A small elasticity of intertemporal substitution is necessary to positively price the short-run risks induced by the production constraints. Inventories help fit the volatilities of asset returns, while the time-to-produce feature ensures nontrivial inventory holdings. In addition, the model is able to match empirical lead-lag patterns between asset prices and macroeconomic quantities as well as observed equity return predictability.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1985. / Bibliography: leaves 209-214. / Photocopy. / Microfilm. / xiii, 214 leaves, bound

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1980. / Bibliography: leaves [95]-100. / Microfiche. / viii, 100 leaves, bound maps 29 cm

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1984. / Bibliography: leaves 86-91. / Microfiche. / viii, 91 leaves, bound 29 cm

In order to successfully implement service internationalisation, a detailed knowledge of the target foreign culture is required (e.g., beliefs, values, lifestyles, symbols, psycholinguistics, and attitudes). This information may be used to manage the alignment of service offerings with local tastes, and create perceptual stimuli to foster trust and encourage consumption (Fugate 1996). Credible tools are therefore required to provide the market intelligence required to understand the cultural context and inform adaptation to local preferences. Service quality modelling and measurement perform such a role in reporting customer perceptions of the effectiveness of service marketing effort. However consideration of culture�s influence upon service quality evaluation has hitherto received only periphery attention within the literature. While numerous researchers have examined the role that values play as an antecedent of the service quality construct (e.g., Donthu and Yoo 1998; Furrer et al. 2000; Mattila 1999; Winsted 1997) there are no published studies adopting a more comprehensive view of culture�s role. The widespread adoption of values as a proxy for understanding culture�s influence upon the service quality construct appears flawed as there is no theoretical justification to isolate values from the rest of the cultural field (Bourdieu 1990; Radcliffe-Brown 1949). Values alone, such as Hofstede (1984a) and Schwartz and Bilsky�s (1987) schemas, cannot fully explain how individual consumers reconcile their individual preferences with broader cultural influences (e.g., institutions, beliefs, regulations, and artefacts). In this study Bourdieu�s (1986) structuralist perspective of culture is utilised as a framework to explore how culture influences service quality. In this perspective the social world is viewed as being comprised of rules and systems that guide/inform an individual�s behaviour. Values are only one element of this social system. In this study a case approach is adopted to map the role of culture in constructing service quality preferences. While the breadth of the research agenda means there is a large population of possible cases, Taiwan is selected as the case boundary principally due its logistical accessibility. Case selection in this study can therefore be classified as a convenience sample. However, to facilitate intensive study (Stake 2005) complexity is added to the case design through purposeful sampling (Patton 1990). In addition to seeking the perspectives of local Taiwanese outside perspectives are sought from expatriate New Zealanders and Taiwanese who have lived in New Zealand. Through purposive triangulation (Patton 1990) of both the sample underpinning the case and an interpretive multi-discipline analysis the researcher constructs a model of culture�s influence upon service quality evaluation within this case boundary. No evidence is found within either the primary data or critical literature review that Taiwanese culture has any impact upon the evaluation of service quality at the primary dimensional level (i.e., �Process/Outcome Quality�, and the �Personal Interaction Quality�). Indeed apriori modelling of the construct has similarly modelled how consumers separately evaluate interpersonal aspects from other key evaluative criteria (e.g., Dabholkar et al. 1996; Gronroos 1984). This level of the dimensional hierarchy is therefore tentatively determined to be etic (Pike 1967), subject to further cross-cultural studies. A moderate level of cultural influence was however noted amongst the second-order dimensions. Finally, the third and subsequent level indicators were widely found to display extensive cultural influence and require significant adaptation efforts for local cultural preferences.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / The aim of the work reported in this thesis was to develop a scoring algorithm that converts ratings from a validated disease-specific quality of life questionnaire called the Utility-Based Questionnaire-Cancer (UBQ-C) into a utility index that is designed for evaluating clinical trials to inform clinical decisions about cancer treatments. The UBQ-C includes a scale for global health status (1 item); and subscales for physical function (3 items), social/usual activities (4 items), self-care (1 item), and distresses due to physical and psychological symptoms (21 items). Data from three studies was used. A valuation survey consisted of patients with advanced cancer (n=204) who completed the UBQ-C and assigned time-trade-off utilities about their own health state. Clinical trials were of chemotherapy for advanced (n=325) and early (n=126) breast cancer. A scoring algorithm was derived to convert the subscales into a subset index, and combine it with the global scale into an overall quality of life index, which was converted to a utility index with a power transformation. Optimal weights were assigned to the subscales that reflected their correlations with a global scale in each study. The derived utilities were validated by comparison with other patient characteristics. Each trial was evaluated in terms of differences in utility between treatment groups. In the valuation survey, the weights (range 0 to 1) for the subset index were: physical function 0.28, social/usual activities 0.06, self-care 0.01, and distresses 0.64. Weights for the overall quality of life index were health status 0.65 and subset index 0.35. The mean of the utility index scores was similar to the mean of the time trade-off utilities (0.92 vs. 0.91, p=0.6). The weights were adjusted in each clinical trial. The utility index was substantially correlated with other measures of quality of life, discriminated between breast cancer that was advanced rather than early (means 0.88 vs 0.94, p<0.0001), and was responsive to toxic effects of chemotherapy in early breast cancer (mean change 0.07, p<0.0001). There were trends to better mean scores on the utility index for patients allocated to standard-dose versus high-dose chemotherapy in the early cancer trial (p=0.1), and oral versus intravenous chemotherapy in the advanced cancer trial (p=0.2). In conclusion, data from a simple, self-rated, disease-specific questionnaire can be converted into a utility index based on cancer patients’ preferences. The index can be optimised in different clinical contexts to reflect the relative importance of different aspects of quality of life to the patients in a trial. The index can be used to generate utility scores and quality-adjusted life-years in clinical trials. It enables the evaluation of the net effect of treatments on health-related quality of life (accounting for trade-offs between disparate aspects); the evaluation of the net benefit of treatments (accounting for trade-offs between quality of life and survival); and an alternate perspective for comparing the incremental cost-effectiveness of treatments (accounting for trade-offs between net benefit and costs). The practical significance of this work is to facilitate the integration of data about health-related quality of life with traditional trial endpoints such as survival and tumour response. This will better inform clinical decision-making, and provide an alternate viewpoint for economic decision-making. Broadly, it will help patients, clinicians and health funders make better decisions about cancer treatments, by considering potential trade-offs between effects on survival and health-related quality of life.

THE AUSTRALIAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM has an overarching objective to improve the well-being of all Australians in an equitable and efficient manner. But like most developed economy health care systems, it has experienced a continual increase in demand for health care services along with increased pressure to improve efficiency, quality, and sustainability. To assist in health sector management, policy formulation, investment decisions and reform, the Australian government developed the National Health Performance Framework (NHPF). The NHPF employs performance indicators across nine dimensions of health care, including Effectiveness, Appropriateness, Efficiency, Responsiveness, Accessibility, Safety, Continuity, Capability, and Sustainability. While the National Health Performance Committee has recognised that performance indicators used within the NHPF are inadequate, this thesis argues that the solution is not a simple matter of collecting additional data and constructing new and ???improved??? indicators. Due to resource constraints within the health care system there is an implicit performance trade-off across dimensions. The NHPF must take into consideration the value individuals place on the health care dimensions to enable a shift of limited resources to those areas that are most valued. The starting point for the NHPF should be to determine what society wants out of a health system. The purpose of this thesis is to determine Australian society???s preferences for performance across the nine NHPF dimensions of health care. This is achieved using a choice modelling experiment, which describes the performance of the current health care system and alternative health care systems the government could work towards, and asks respondents to compare and choose which system they prefer. A mixed multinomial logit model is used to analyse respondent choices in order to incorporate alternative tastes across attributes, and correlation of tastes across alternatives and scenarios. Relative values attached to the nine NHPF dimensions of health care are calculated and preferences for the dimensions are ranked. The thesis concludes by exploring individual preferences derived form the choice modelling experiment in the context of social welfare theory. It also outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology, provides suggestions for further research, and offers a use for social preferences in the development of performance frameworks within the Australian health care system.

[Truncated abstract] One aim of the present research program was to investigate motivational response inclinations toward high-caloric food at implicit and explicit processing levels with unipolar measures to account for ambivalence. A second aim was to examine the extent of the influence of these implicit and explicit processes on unhealthy eating behaviors, and specifically investigate why people reporting avoid motivational inclinations continue to indulge in high-fat foods. The aim of Study 1 was to examine discordance between implicit and explicit attitudes toward high-fat food in groups that differed in preference for high-fat food. Using a bipolar version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a group difference was found in implicit attitudes toward high-fat food with a trend toward concordance. The aims of Study 2 were to examine if concordance between implicit and explicit processes would be greater if one accounted for motivational ambivalence within and between implicit and explicit processing levels, and to test the influence of these processes on food choice behavior. Using a unipolar version of the IAT, a pattern of concordance was found between implicit and explicit inclinations in most participants, except for those reporting weak avoid and strong approach inclinations. Further, implicit avoid and explicit avoid inclinations were found to predict food choice behavior in a context that made body and weight concerns salient. A parallel study (Study 3) was conducted with a high-caloric food that is viewed very ambivalently by society (i.e., chocolate) to determine if societal ambivalence is reflected in implicit associations, and to test the influence of implicit and explicit processes on food choice behavior. In contrast to Study 2, results indicated that all groups were implicitly ambivalent toward chocolate. Further, implicit approach and explicit avoid inclinations were found to antagonistically predict behavior suggesting that the proximal benefits of chocolate indulgence tend to outweigh the distal consequences. ... Results showed that when the unhealthy consequences of high-fat food consumption were primed, implicit avoid motivational inclinations toward high-fat food could be differentially activated and influence choice of certain high-fat foods. In conclusion, this research program found evidence for eating-related ambivalence within and between implicit and explicit processing levels which underscores the importance of utilizing unipolar measures in research investigating motivational response inclinations toward food and other substances. Further, implicit and explicit processes were found to influence high-fat food choice behavior in an antagonistic pattern with implicit approach inclinations conflicting with explicit avoid inclinations when health and weight concerns were not salient, providing support for the additive predictive pattern of food choice. A key theoretical implication of this research program is that the integration of the dual process models (e.g., Strack & Deutsch, 2004) with the ambivalence model of substance craving (e.g., Breiner, Stritzke, & Lang, 1999) can advance the understanding of competing motivational response inclinations toward high-fat foods at the implicit and explicit levels.