As there is a clear correlation between one's degree of proficiency in the English language and one's subsequent financial compensation in the workplace setting and in interpersonal relationships, improving one's speaking abilities can be highly valuable from both a financial and emotional perspective. This study examines the efficacy of an electropalatography (EPG) assisted pronunciation training program in helping native Japanese learners of English acquire and improve the /r/ and /l/ sound contrast in American English, as rated by a group of listeners. Additionally, it evaluates whether or not the degree of improvement varied across word position, task type, or assessment period. Four native Japanese speaking learners of English participated in a four-week program which included seven 45- minute training sessions enhanced with visual biofeedback from the EPG. Samples of their productions of the target phonemes were obtained at baseline, at posttreatment, and at follow-up assessment periods. Using a visual analogue scale, 36 adult listeners listened to these recordings and provided comparative auditory perceptual ratings. Overall, subjects showed greater improvement in their production of the phoneme /l/ than in the phoneme /r/. Phoneme-specific patterns emerged in terms of word position, task type, and assessment period. For the phoneme /l/, more improvement was seen in final position than initial position, more improvement was seen in nonsense syllables than in words, and improvements were maintained across posttreatment to follow-up assessment periods. For the phoneme /r/, roughly equal levels of improvement were seen across word position, while greater improvement was seen in the context of words in sentences than in nonsense syllables, and posttreatment showed greater levels of improvement than did follow-up assessment periods. These results are promising as it indicates that EPG assisted pronunciation training may be an effective vehicle to help L2 English language learners acquire and improve their productions of the /r/-/l/ phonemic contrast. This is significant, as the Japanese L2 population has typically been found to be highly resistant to more traditional forms of intervention.

Especially during the last century the health of school children has been a problem of deep concern. Many physical examinations have been given by numerous organizations with the intention of discovering organic disorders that might be detrimental to a child's normal social life. As a result of such study, humanity has generally come to recognize the social and economic costs of ill-health and has embarked on remedial and preventive campaigns to improve the well-being of children. Foundations have been endowed. Free clinics have been established to serve those families whos incomes prohibit them from securing medical services otherwise; county, city and school nurses and doctors have been employed in districts throughout the country to render treatment and give advice. Health educational campaigns have been conducted and organized health units and agencies have been instituted. Of late, socialized medicine has gained in populatrity as a means of enabling certain unfortunate persons to benefit from expert services. All of these efforts which have been directed mainly in the interests of school children have brought to light many interesting facts relevant to physcial conditions that threaten good health. Few doubt the value of knowing what evil effects diseased tonsils or teeth, diseased heart, curvature of the spine, defective feet, or other physical disorders may have upon the health of the child. Nor do most people question the importance of having these physical handicaps removed or corrected so that one may come nearer functioning to his normal capacity. It is generally recognized today that not only the welfare of the individual but the future of civilization depends greatly upon the health of its citizens. Purposes of this study are threefold: (1) to ascertain certain existing social, economic and educational conditions found among seventh and eighth grade children of Brigham City grouped according to physical rating; (2) to compare the groups with respect of these certain conditions; and (3) where it seems justified, to compare the findings in this project with those disclosed by other research studies. Inasmuch as this is relatively a new field of research many of the comparisions with outside studies are indirect rather than of direct significance.

Several experts in the area of postsecondary student evaluations of courses have concluded that they are stable or reliable measures as well as being measures that provide ways of making valid inferences regarding teacher effectiveness. Often these experts have offered these conclusions without supporting evidence. Surprisingly, a thorough review of the literature revealed very few reported test-retest reliability studies of course evaluations and the results from these studies are contradictory. In the area of validity, the conclusions offered by scholars who conducted meta-analyses of mutlisection course studies are inconsistent. This leads to the following two research questions: 1. What is the test-retest reliability over a 3-week period of the course evaluation currently employed at Utah State University? 2. Can results of the course evaluation employed at Utah State University be used to make valid inferences about a teacher's effectiveness? Two parts of a study were conducted to answer these questions. First, a test-retest reliability part was conducted with students from courses at Utah State University, employing a 3-week time lapse between administrations of the course evaluations. Second, a multisection course validity part was conducted using existing student ratings data and final examination scores for 100 sections of MATH 1010 over a 5-year period. Correlational analyses were conducted on the resulting data from both studies. Test-retest reliability coefficients ranging from 0.64 to 0.94 were found. In the second study, the correlation coefficients from the validity study ranged from -0.39 to 0.71, with a mean coefficient of 0.14 and 0.11 for final examination score by instructor rating and final examination score by course rating, respectively. Results from both parts of the study suggest that the course evaluation used at USU is not reliable and that results of the course evaluation do not provide information that can be used to make valid inferences regarding teacher effectiveness.

No description available.

Issuing environmentally aligned green bonds has become an increasingly popular way to raise capital for green investments during the last decade. This thesis explores potential pricing differences between green and conventional bonds, known as the green premium, on the Swedish secondary bond market. Prior green bond research is inconclusive regarding the direction, size and even existence of such a premium. By creating a sample of 50 matched pairs of green and conventional bonds, we show an average positive green premium of 10 bps on the Swedish market, indicating that Swedish green bonds trade at higher yields than their conventional counterparts. We also study whether the size of the green premium is affected by credit ratings and third-party green certification but find no evidence of such effects. Overall, the results from this thesis add to current green bond research by showing a positive green premium, but the lack of shown effects from credit ratings and green certification indicate that further study is needed to fully understand the pricing mechanisms of green bonds.

The emissions of greenhouse gases need to be cut by 45% between 2010 and 2030 and reach net-zero by around 2050 (IPCC, 2018) to limit global temperature-rise to 1,5 degrees C. More companies are committing to net-zero emissions, but the overall emissions of greenhouse gases in the world are still going up, and previous research shows that there is an implementation gap and lack of plans in companies. This thesis examines the hindering and supporting factors for companies’ net-zero transition. It is also exploring how SBTi, sustainability reporting, and sustainability ratings influence the net-zero transition in companies according to sustainability practitioners. The key findings are that companies alone cannot do the net-zero transition; they are dependent on other stakeholders and factors such as investors, customers and suppliers. Investors and customers are strong drivers for some companies to make the transition to netzero, but they are also the strongest hindering factors not wanting to pay extra or sacrifice dividends for the transition in companies’ value chains. Companies are also dependent on their suppliers and customers to measure and cut their value chain scope 3 emissions. To reach net-zero, new ways of collaboration are needed across the value chain. Internally, the implementation has not started properly in many companies. The key hindering factor internally is money, the investments needed will impact the profits, and often bonuses of managers, and GHG emission reductions need to be valued on the same level as money. Investors and financial actors play a large role pushing companies to set net-zero targets through SBTi. SBTi is a key framework to make companies cut emissions in line with science, but its control mechanisms are weak. If the control mechanisms are strengthened through audits, accountability and litigation, SBTi has the potential to be a very strong supporting factor for companies’ net-zero transition. Sustainability reports and ratings are the way companies communicate their net-zero performance with their stakeholders, but the reports are a polished truth, and it is difficult to understand the net-zero performance in companies. Ratings such as CDP do not reward emission reductions enough, instead they reward processes and documents which can make the companies look greener than they are.

No description available.

Parent-child interaction could arguably be the most important factor in child development, including academic achievement, behavior, and personality. This study suggests that the quantity of parent-child interaction is just as important as quality, and we test the reliability and validity of our instrument developed to quantitatively measure parent-child interaction in the home under realistic conditions. Twenty-eight children’s parents participated in the study over four days. Eight families had two research observers complete the instrument simultaneously with them, and reliability measures were taken between parents (74%), parent and one research-observers (78%), and two research observers (97%). Validity measures yielded scores of 78% for parents and 77% for colleagues. This study’s instrument was shown to be a simple and strongly reliable instrument for measuring children’s after-school activities and a reliable way to measure parent-child interactions indirectly, avoiding a social desirability response set.

Since the regulatory framework Basel II was implemented in 2007, banks have been allowed to develop internal risk models for quantifying the capital requirement. By using data on retail non-performing loans from Hoist Finance, the thesis assesses the Advanced Internal Ratings-Based approach. In particular, it focuses on how banks active in the non-performing loan industry, can risk-classify their loans despite limited data availability of the debtors. Moreover, the thesis analyses the effect of the maximum-recovery period on the capital requirement. In short, a comparison of five different mathematical models based on prior research in the field, revealed that the loans may be modelled by a two-step tree model with binary logistic regression and zero-inflated beta-regression, resulting in a maximum-recovery period of eight years. Still it is necessary to recognize the difficulty in distinguishing between low- and high-risk customers by primarily assessing rudimentary data about the borrowers. Recommended future amendments to the analysis in further research would be to include macroeconomic variables to better capture the effect of economic downturns. / Sedan det regulatoriska ramverket Basel II implementerades 2007, har banker tillåtits utveckla interna riskmodeller för att beräkna kapitalkravet. Genom att använda data på fallerade konsumentlån från Hoist Finance, utvärderar uppsatsen den avancerade interna riskklassificeringsmodellen. I synnerhet fokuserar arbetet på hur banker aktiva inom sektorn för fallerade lån, kan riskklassificera sina lån trots begränsad datatillgång om låntagarna. Dessutom analyseras effekten av maximala inkassoperioden på kapitalkravet. I sammandrag visade en jämförelse av fem modeller, baserade på tidigare forskning inom området, att lånen kan modelleras genom en tvåstegs trädmodell med logistisk regression samt s.k. zero-inflated beta regression, resulterande i en maximal inkassoperiod om åtta år. Samtidigt är det värt att notera svårigheten i att skilja mellan låg- och högriskslåntagare genom att huvudsakligen analysera elementär data om låntagarna. Rekommenderade tillägg till analysen i fortsatt forskning är att inkludera makroekonomiska variabler för att bättre inkorporera effekten av ekonomiska nedgångar.

Workers within production and assembly lines are often exposed to ergonomically unfavorable tasksand conditions. Reaction forces and reaction torques generated by industrial power tools may causenot only discomfort but also health issues and injury. The forceful tasks in combination with highlyrepetitive hand-arm motions and prolonged tool use paves the way for loss in workforce capacitywhich in turn can lead to great losses in productivity and product quality. An umbrella term for themany injuries and diseases that may arise from the use of such tools is Cumulative Trauma Disorders(CTD).This study aimed to investigate the ergonomic effect of power tool use for various tool and taskrelated conditions. The study required the setup of a test rig with a simulated handle of the tool. Theergonomic impact was assessed by measuring the torques associated with different tighteningstrategies, as well as measuring the angular displacement of the tool handle. By varying the jointstiffness and workplace orientation, the complexity of the task was varied and thus quantified.Measurements of muscle activity during each tightening procedure provided a quantification of thephysiological impact on the operator. By combining the measurements on the operator withsubjective assessment of perceived exertion and discomfort, a more holistic perspective on thetightening procedure was obtained.The results obtained from the study stressed the negative impact on the operator which the QuickStep tightening strategy on medium hard joints implies, regardless of workspace orientation. TheTurbo Tight and Tensor Pulse tightening strategies turned out to generate the lowest reactiontorques and handle deflections, regardless of joint stiffness and workspace orientation. The findingsfrom the muscle activity measurements in combination with the subjective evaluation methodsfurther confirmed the mildness of the Turbo Tight and Tensor Pulse strategies. Moreover, horizontalworkspace resulted in lower tool handle deflection compared to vertical workspace for all tighteningstrategies and joint stiffnesses. / Många antällda på monteringsband exponeras ofta för ergonomiskt ofördelaktiga arbetsuppgifter och arbetsförhållanden. De handhållna monteringsverktyg som används genrerar ofta reaktionskrafter som i många fall kan orsaka en känsla av obehag eller ge upphov till mer bestående hälsobesvär. De kraftfulla och repetetiva arbetsuppgifterna som montering många gånger innebär kan bana väg för förluster i arbetskraftskapacitet, vilket i sin tur kan leda till stora förluster i produktivitet och produktkvalitet. En paraplyterm för de många åkommor och besvär som kan uppstå som ett resultat av användandet av handhållna monteringsverktyg är ’förslitningsskador’ (Cumulative Trauma Disorders på engelska). Målsättningen för denhär studien har varit att undersöka de ergonomiska effekter som användandet av handhållna monteringsverktyg innebär vid olika vektygs- och arbetsuppgiftsrelaterade parametrar. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av en test rig där ett simulerat verktygshandtag utnyttjades. Den ergonomiska effekten på användaren undersöktes genom mätningar av uppnådda reaktions moment och handtags vinklar associerade med olika åtdragningsstrategier, styvhet av förband samt orientering av arbetsyta. Genom att mäta muskelaktiviteten i underarmen hos testpersonerna erhölls en kvantifiering av den fysiologiska effekten på testpersonerna. Mätningarna av vinkel, moment och muskelaktivitet kombinerades med subjektiva skattningsmetoder för att på så sätt kunna erhålla ett mer holistiskt perspektiv på åtdragningarna och deras effekt på människan. Resultaten från studien underströk de negativa effekterna av åtdragning med Quick Step strategin på medium hårda förband, oavsett orientering av arbetsytan. Turbo Tight och Tensor Pulse strategierna genererade de lägsta reaktions momenten och handtags deflektionerna. Resultaten från muskelsaktivitetsmätningarna och de subjektiva skattningsmetoderna bekräftade den relativa mildheten hos Tensor Pulse och Turbo Tight strategierna. Dessutom påvisades att åtdragningar som sker på en horisontell arbetsyta resulterade i lägre handtagsdeflektion jämfört med åtdragningar på en vertikal arbetsyta, oavsett åtdragningsstrategi och styvhet hos förband.