The debate surrounding one’s right to know what is in one’s food has increased in popularity since 2012 when California became the first state to vote on Proposition 37 which would have mandated the labeling of genetically modified organisms. Proposition 37 was defeated due to the public relations campaign mounted by Monsanto and other corporate sponsors of genetically engineered seeds. Utilizing both a visual and written content analysis, this study identified the ethically problematic public relations strategies within the campaign to defeat Proposition 37, while also examining the content to determine whether the strategic communication must be classified as commercial or political speech pursuant to the First Amendment. Even though the campaign was found to be ethically problematic when applying the five elements of the TARES Test, it was beneficial to expand those components for future evaluations regarding all issues when a corporate speaker is involved in advocacy.

Propositional attitudes, states like believing, desiring, intending, etc., have played a central role in the articulation of many of our major theories, both in philosophy and the social sciences. Until relatively recently, psychology was a prominent entry on the list of social sciences in which propositional attitudes occupied center stage. In this century, though, behaviorists began to make a self-conscious effort to expunge "mentalistic" notions from their theorizing. Behaviorism has failed. Psychology therefore is again experiencing "formative years," and two themes have caught the interest of philosophers. The first is that psychological theories evidently must exploit a vast array of relations obtaining among internal states. The second is that the use of mentalistic idioms seems to be explicit again in much of current theorizing. These two observations have led philosophers to wonder about the probable as well as the proper role of propositional attitudes in future psychological theories. Some philosophers wonder, in particular, about the role of the contents of propositional attitudes in the forthcoming theories. Their strategy is in part to discern what sorts of theory psychologists now will want to construct, and then discern what role propositional attitude contents might play in theories of those sorts. I consider here two sorts of theory, what I call minimal functional theories and what is known as propositional attitude psychology. I outline these two kinds of theory, and show how each defines a role for contents. Contents are ultimately eliminable in minimal functional theories. Although they play an apparently ineliminable role in propositional attitude psychology, they do so at an apparent cost. Propositional attitude psychology does not seem to accommodate a certain methodological principle, a principle of individualism in psychology, which is endorsed even by some of the philosophers most enamored of the approach. Such philosophers have two options: they can attempt to show that the conflict between the approach and the principle is not genuine, or they can reject the principle. I argue that the conflict is real, and recommend a qualified rejections of the principle.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Richard McGowan / Proposition 13 revolutionized local politics in California when it stated that any future increase in taxes or tax rates would require a vote of two-thirds of the electors in any given local jurisdiction. Since California is the sixth largest economy in the world and exhibits tremendous economic and demographic variation, this study seeks to determine what characteristics of a county can be used to predict whether or not a local ballot initiative will pass. In addition, this study attempts to determine whether there is a distinction between the predictive value of demographic variables for transportation, education, safety, and facilities initiatives. This report reveals that greater wealth within a county is associated with a greater likelihood of an initiative passing, although at a decreasing rate. The data also suggests that a greater percentage of nonwhites in a county is correlated with an initiative passing. In counties with larger elderly populations, initiatives are less likely to pass. Furthermore, the data indicates that the impact of demographics varies for transportation, education, safety, and facilities initiatives. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2005. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

There are consumers who engage in innovation and who cocreate value together with other consumers, and with producers, in relation to products. This thesis has the purpose of exploring the nature of this ‘active consumer’ from a firm perspective, and thereby providing an answer to the thesis-level research question: ‘What are the implications of the active consumer on innovation and marketing practices?’ Four papers, drawing on research in the fields of consumer innovation and value cocreation, are presented that contain findings about the knowledge of the active consumer (Paper I), support (Paper II) and management (Paper III) of the active consumer, and challenges with the active consumer (Paper IV). The papers rest on two research efforts: a study of the video game industry that includes an investigation of a game developer and a netnography of its consumer community and a study of the entire development of a customer loyalty card by a leading grocery retailer. The insights into the active consumer gained from the four papers are analyzed against the thesis-level research question using an explanatory lens that is developed through the notion of practice, rendering a discussion about the implications of the active consumer on the scripts of innovation and marketing practices. The thesis is concluded with a discussion of its contributions and implications for innovation and marketing scholars and managers.

The subject of this thesis is primarily the ethical point of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the work, Wittgenstein investigates the connection between ethics and the world by examining the nature of the proposition. In the Lecture on Ethics, Wittgenstein reinvestigates this connection more directly by explaining the nature of the ethical expression. I argue that the ethical point of the book is to help one to understand the ephemeral characteristics of ethics insofar as they cannot be articulated by demonstrating what can be articulated. In the Lecture, Wittgenstein also points to a deep challenge encountering the Tractarian pictorial language. Logic reminds us that we are held captive by pictorial language and could never get outside it. Ethics, on the other hand, is a constant attempt to get outside of it by usage of simile. Although this attempt seems to be hopeless, it is unavoidable and significant. It characterizes the human condition.

Thesis (M.Comp.Sci.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Computer Science and Software Engineering, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-116).

Texte remanié de: Magisterarbeit--Hamburg--Universität Hamburg, 1990.

This thesis studies the effects on the unemployment rate and average income due to the payroll tax cuts for young workers in Sweden. The method that has been used is a difference-in-difference approach with two different control groups. The unemployment rate for Swedish individuals at age 15-24 has been matched towards individuals at the same age in Finland and Denmark. The data behind the estimations is picked from the database of Eurostat. The results indicate an increase in the unemployment rate, contrary to the expectations from the theoretical framework in the subject. One possible explanation for a lack of increase in employment due to a targeted tax cut is shifting, meaning that the lowered cost for firms is shifted onto the employees’ wages. However, no significant results on the wage effect were found, so no such conclusion can be made. The explanation could lay in modeling problems, a growing labor force or the supply of labor (which may choose other alternatives than employment). By the results of this report, the main conclusion is that the payroll tax reductions did not reduce the high unemployment rate among young individuals in Sweden.

Sverige har likt många andra europeiska nationer brottats med hög ungdomsarbetslöshet under de senaste 20 åren. I ett försök att underlätta ungdomars inträde på arbetsmarknaden valde regeringen att i två steg sänka arbetsgivaravgiften för ungdomar. De båda sänkningarna innebar sedermera en dryg halvering av det samlade uttaget för arbetsgivaravgiften från 31 till 15 procent. Tidigare forskning påvisar försumbara sysselsättningseffekter. Detta till följd av att skattesänkningen på längre sikt övervältras till löntagaren i form av högre lön. I denna uppsats studeras huruvida sänkningarna av arbetsgivaravgiften i enighet med proposition 2006/07:84 Nedsättning av sociala avgifter för personer som fyllt 18 men inte 25 år, samt proposition 2008/09:7 kraftfullare nedsättning av sociala avgifter för unga, har medfört en positiv sysselsättningseffekt för ungdomar. Metoden som använts är Difference-in-Differences-skattningar av förändringen i sysselsättningsgrad för tidsperioderna ett år efter genomförandet av respektive reform. Mätningen har sedan utökats till att innefatta tiden för första reforen och 3.5 år framåt. Två olika behandlings- respektive kontrollgrupper har använts. Sysselsättningsgraden för ungdomar mellan 15-24 år matchas mot samma grupp i Finland. Även en inhemsk jämförelse har gjorts bestående av sysselsättningsgraden för gruppen 20-24 år mot 25-34 år. Data som ligger till grund för mätningarna är tvärsnittsdata hämtade från SCB och Eurostat. Ingen signifikant positiv sysselsättningseffekt har kunnat påvisas inom ramen för denna uppsats.