As there is still limited research on brand equity and brand impact in a high tech industry as the smartphone industry, this study focused on highlighting brand equity and brand relevance in the Swedish smartphone market. The aim was to increase knowledge about the discussion of brand equity from a consumer perspective on the smartphone market by finding out what significance the brand had for the consumers in the purchase of a smartphone and how strong brand equity the brands, Apple, Samsung, HTC, LG and Huawei had in the Swedish smartphone market. To address the research questions, a survey was done as data collection. Questionnaires were distributed to 120 respondents consisting of students in the Stockholm area, from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University and Södertörn University. The survey in question was formed almost entirely out of David A. Aaker's concept of brand equity, which consists of brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations and brand loyalty. The study found two clusters of smartphone manufacturers with different brand strength based of brand equity. The first cluster consisted of the brands Apple and Samsung, both of which had higher brand equity in relation to the remaining brands. The remaining brands HTC, LG and Huawei formed the second cluster, in which Huawei deviated in a bit in strengthfrom the two aforementioned brands. The study also found that the brand was of high significance for consumers when buying a smartphone. / Då det fortfarande är begränsad forskning om varumärkeskapital och varumärkets betydelse i en högteknologisk bransch som smartphonebranschen har denna studie fokuserat på att belysa varumärkeskapitalet och varumärkets betydelse på den svenska smartphonemarknaden. Syftet var att utöka kunskapen kring diskussionen om varumärkeskapital från ett konsumentperspektiv på smartphonemarknaden genom att ta reda på vad varumärket hade för betydelse för studenter vid köp av en smartphone och hur starkt varumärkeskapital varumärkena Apple, Samsung, HTC, LG och Huawei hade på den svenska smartphonemarknaden. För att angripa forskningsfrågorna gjordes en enkätundersökning som empiriinsamling. Enkäter delades ut till 120 respondenter som bestod av studenter i Stockholmsområdet från Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholms Universitet samt Södertörns högskola. Enkäten i fråga formades nästintill helt utifrån David A. Aakers koncept om varumärkeskapital, vilket utgörs av varumärkeskännedom, upplevd kvalité, varumärkesassociationer och varumärkeslojalitet. Studien kom fram till två kluster av smartphonetillverkare med olika varumärkesstyrkor baserat på varumärkeskapitalet. Det första klustret utgjordes av varumärkena Apple och Samsung som hade högre varumärkeskapital i relation till resterande varumärken. De resterande varumärkena HTC, LG och Huawei utgjorde det ena klustret där Huawei hade en något avvikande varumärkesstyrka från de två förstnämnda i klustret. I studien framkom det även att varumärket hade en stor betydelseför studenterna vid ett köp av en smartphone

Throughout history, the direct or indirect choice of preservation has resulted in the successful incorporation of tangible products of the human past into modern cultural environments. Within the current American historic preservation system, "significance" is used as a delimiter for identifying historic properties that are determined beneficial to the heritage of the American people. As defined under U.S. law, however, "significance" is attributed only to places and objects whose importance is limited within an historical or scientific framework. This thesis proposes that the significance of historic properties transcends the boundaries of these limited frameworks of importance, and demonstrates that the public benefits of preservation are maximized when history is reified through the modern-use of these places and objects as cultural resources for the current and future generations of the American people.

Breast cancer is a disease that afflicts a significant proportion of women globally. 5-10% of breast cancer cases are linked to inherited polymorphisms in critical genes such as BRCA1, a tumour suppressor essential for genomic stability. A dysfunctional BRCA1 gene can increase breast cancer risk by 60-80%. Previous microarray analysis established that differential gene expression in unperturbed Epstein-Barr virus transformed lymphocyte cell lines (EBV-LCL) was able to distinguish BRCA1 mutation carriers from controls with a high degree of accuracy. A 43-gene radiation-independent classifier for BRCA1 status was constructed. We hypothesize that this differential gene expression can be observed in a subset of these genes using quantitative PCR (qPCR) in both EBV-LCL and B-lymphocytes isolated from patients with known BRCA1 mutation carrier status. The 43-gene classifier was analyzed using gene ontology analysis and 4 target genes selected based on predictive value, expression intensity and gene ontology similarity. Genes selected were CXCR3, TBX21, MX2, and IFIT1, with GusB as an endogenous reference gene. EBV-LCL established from known BRCA1 mutation carriers and from BRCA1 wildtype individuals were obtained and RT-qPCR (reverse transcriptase qPCR) performed on isolated RNA. Our results showed significant downregulation of CXCR3 and TBX21 in BRCA1 mutation carriers (p=0.018 and p=0.003, respectively), as expected from previous microarray results. IFIT1, while showing a non-significant upregulation (p=0.183), agreed with the expected trend. MX2 did not show significant differential expression. These results indicate that differential gene expression has the potential to accurately distinguish pathogenic variants, even if it may require EBV immortalization of B-lymphocytes. To determine whether the assay could be extended to fresh blood samples, B-lymphocytes were isolated from patients with known BRCA1 mutation carrier status from North York General Hospital in Toronto, ON. An optimized protocol to enrich the B-lymphocyte population using magnetic separation was developed for this purpose. RT-qPCR using RNA isolated from these lymphocytes showed no significant differential gene expression in CXCR3 and TBX21. However, a low sample size, use of non-sequenced controls and a need for further qPCR optimization may call these results into question. In addition, problems with blood sample transportation from off-site sources resulted in an unacceptable drop in RNA integrity. While this gene expression assay may be limited to screening a small number of blood samples, results indicate that may still have clinical relevance that can be explored. This would necessitate further optimization of the qPCR methodology and resolution of the issues surrounding RNA integrity and sample transport. / Thesis (Master, Pathology & Molecular Medicine) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-26 13:13:50.809

In my essay I'm studying what aspects of the school environment that influences the pupils experience of safety and what aspects that strengthens the experience of safety. I'm introducing three different dilemmas from three different places in the school environment. The three dilemmas have that in common that they focus on safety. I'm introducing the after-school centre commission according to the National Agency for Education, presenting results and theories from various researchers and authors about how you can work with safety regarding children's development and learning. My conclusion is that safety is a very important aspect when it comes to learning and for the overall development of children. The safety is affected by both the social environment and interaction between pupils and the relationship between the child and the pedagogue. It is also important that everybody that works in a school organizes their work in such a way that the pedagogical environment of the children is safe and secure. My conclusion is also that the pedagogues play an important role in the development of the pupils. In particular by offering safety, notably for the children that lack that in their home environment. Close ties, stability, yardsticks and working with social skills should be a part of the everyday life in a school environment.

sociological literature suggests that adult sports participation is occurring in a 'culture of risk' which glorifies pain, rationalises risk and promotes the practice of playing hurt (Messner, 1990; Nixon, 1992; Curry 1993; Pike, 2000; Roderick et aI, 2000, Safai, 2003; Howe, 2004; Young, 2004a; Liston et aI. 2006). Using this corpus of knowledge as a point of departure, this study directs attention towards young people's sporting risk encounters within the specific context of school sport. Guided by a process-sociological framework (Elias, 1978, 1991,2000 [1939]), it offers an insight into the ways in which young people interpret, experience and manage sporting risk and episodes of sporting pain and injury whilst at school. The research draws on data generated by 1,651 young people aged between ten and sixteen years old using a three-phase data collection programme. The programme incorporated self-report questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and group-based creative tasks and was conducted in six secondary schools located in "Churchill", a major English conurbation. The findings suggest that school sport worlds (re )produce two entwined, yet competing sets of beliefs, attitudes and practices related to sporting pain and injury and are best described as webs of risks and precaution and protectionism. Rather than adopting a more cautious approach to pain and injury the data indicates that this cluster of young people frequently play hurt, normalise injury and engage in forms of 'injury talk' that discredit episodes of sporting pain. In so doing, they may be placing their short and long-term physical, psychological, social and moral health in jeopardy. However, it is argued that this collection of sporting practices are highly valued by young people and are integral to the ways in which they assign and perform a range of dissecting and fluid embodied identities. Notwithstanding the potential for sporting risk encounters to engender damaging, disrupting and debilitating outcomes, the data also emphasises the potential for these experiences to act as important spaces in which young people are able to probe their bodily limits, develop corporeal knowledge and experience pleasurable emotions (Maguire, 199Ia). This thesis draws attention to the duality of sport and calls for a more reality-congruent approach to the sport-health-risk-youth nexus in the development of future (school) sport worlds.

The problem of this study was to determine whether Kenyan Bible college students who receive instruction using a modified (highly structured) mastery learning model will demonstrate greater achievement in knowledge of Christian Church history as compared to Kenyan Bible college students who receive instruction using a traditional (minimally structured) non-mastery learning model. The subjects were 17 second-year Kenyan Bible college students enrolled in a course on Christian Church history, and they were randomly assigned to the two treatment conditions. The researcher served as instructor for both groups. The experimental group used a textbook, detailed syllabus, 200 page study guide (featuring an advance organizer to provide an ideational scaffolding), and a lesson-development feature (providing an enabling objective, congruent questions, and informative feedback for each lesson segment). The control group used a textbook and a less-detailed syllabus. Both groups shared the same classroom lectures, class discussions, required assignments, examinations, and review of examination items. Five tests of Christian church history were administered, including a pretest, three unit tests, and a comprehensive course examination. Test data were analyzed using a 2 x 5 (treatment x testing occasion) repeated measures analysis of variance (RM ANOVA). The percentage of students performing at mastery level (80% correct) on each test was also calculated. Results indicated that, from the second unit test to the comprehensive examination, the modified mastery learning group achieved slightly but consistently higher mean percentage correct scores than the traditional group, but there was no significant main effect for treatment. In contrast, the main effect for testing occasion did reach statistical significance. Across the five test occasions, 8% to 51% more students in the modified mastery learning group attained mastery level as compared to the traditional learning group.

Tidigare forskning visar att brottsoffer påverkas i olika avseenden, de löper bland annat risk att utveckla post-traumatiskt stressyndrom och egentlig depression. Det sociala stödet har visat sig betydelsefullt för brottsoffers återhämtning. Den här studien har studerat hur personer som blivit utsatta för ett av tre specifika typer av brott påverkats av händelsen samt betydelsen av deras sociala stöd. Totalt åtta personer mellan åldrarna 25-75 med varierande sysselsättning deltog i studien. Hälften av deltagarna var kvinnor. Datainsamlingen skedde via intervjuer. Gemensamt för alla brottstyperna var upplevelsen av (1) att vara ekonomiskt drabbad, (2) påverkad psykiskt, (3) otrygghet och (4) bristande stöd från samhället. Speciellt framträdande vid personrån var dessutom ångest och rädsla, vid inbrott utanför hemmet ilska och tanken att det bara handlar om ersättbara föremål och vid inbrott i hemmet oro och tanken att det handlar om oersättliga föremål. Resultatet överensstämmer med tidigare forskning, dock framkom även tidigare oupptäckta komponenter.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) reflects summated, slow post-synaptic potentials of cortical neurons. Sensory, motor or cognitive events (such as a fast-rising sensory stimulus, a brisk self-paced movement or a stimulus-triggered cognitive task) can elicit transient changes in the ongoing human EEG, called event-related potentials (ERPs). ERPs are widely used in clinical practice, and believed to reflect the activity of the sensory system activated by the stimulus (for example, laser-evoked potentials are used to substantiate the neuropathic nature of clinical pain conditions). When ERPs are elicited by pairs or trains of stimuli delivered at short inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs), the magnitude of the ERP elicited by the repeated stimuli is markedly reduced, a phenomenon known as response decrement. While the interval between two consecutive stimuli becomes longer, the reduced response is recovered. Thus, this phenomenon has been traditionally interpreted in terms of neural refractoriness of generators of ERPs ("neural refractoriness hypothesis"). This thesis, however, challenges this neural refractoriness hypothesis by describing the results of manipulating the preceding events of the eliciting stimulus. The first study examined the effect of variable and short ISIs on sensory ERPs, delivering trains of auditory and electrical stimuli with random ISIs ranging from 100 to 1000ms. In the second study, pairs of laser stimuli were presented in two comparable conditions. In the constant condition, the ISI was identical across trials in each block, while in the variable condition, the ISI was variable across trials. By directly comparing ERPs elicited by laser stimulation, this study aimed to explore whether lack of saliency in the eliciting stimulus could explain the response decrement during stimulus repetition. Finally, the third study tested the hypothesis that the reduced eliciting ERPs would recover if saliency were introduced by changing the modality of the preceding event. Thus, trains of three stimuli (S1-S2-S3) with 1s ISI were presented; S2 was either same or different in modality as S1 and S3 in each block. Results from these three experiments demonstrate that this "refractoriness hypothesis" does not hold, and suggest that the magnitude of ERPs is only partly related to the magnitude of the incoming sensory input, and instead largely reflects neural activities triggered by salient events in the sensory environment. These results are important for the correct interpretation of ERPs in both physiological and clinical studies.

My dissertation deals with the significance of C-reactive protein determination in clinical practices. It is divided into three parts. Theorethical part acquaints us with CRP, statistics and statistical methods. Experimental part informs us about the applied machine, data gathering and outcomes valuation procedures.There are results of statistical data processing in the final part of my thesis. CRP was measured with Qucread 101 machine (Oriondignostika) in all cases and biological samples to distinguish between different kinds of infection were collected from all examined patients. I set down all the examination results and patients symptoms into a tab and made statistical data evaluation. The purpose of my work was to find out if CRP level incresed above 50mg/l isdefinitely confirmed by biological samples examination. If we can find possitive cultivation when CRP is lower than 8mg/l and finally to discover the correlation between all investigated atributes. Aftet answering these qeustions we should be able to find out significance of CRP measuring in diagnosis assessment.

Esta tese reafirma a importância das trocas de experiências intergeracionais na qualificação de processos de construção de conhecimento e cultura, na contemporaneidade, a partir do desenvolvimento de um dispositivo educacional e cultural - a Oficina intergeracional - em uma instituição que atende crianças e jovens, na comunidade de Paraisópolis, situada na região sul da cidade de São Paulo. A pesquisa foi realizada com base nos pressupostos da metodologia colaborativa, onde os sujeitos são compreendidos e tratados como criadores de conhecimento e cultura que atuam em associação com o pesquisador, construindo ações em conjunto em torno do objeto comum das trocas intergeracionais. Ao promoverem a interrupção nos fluxos cotidianos habituais dos membros de diferentes faixas etárias da comunidade de Paraisópolis e do PECP (Programa Einstein na Comunidade de Paraisópolis), as oficinas intergeracionais promoveram e permitiram a emergência e a recriação de uma corrente de saberes e fazeres que constituem, dão apoio, conferem, constroem e reconstroem identidades, signos e práticas relacionais e culturais. O encontro da saberes e fazeres intergeracionais, somados à articulação de saberes e fazeres científicos, profissionais e da experiência pode constituir-se em caminho para a instauração de novas e promissoras relações entre informação e significação, preservando e valorizando processos de apropriação e criação de conhecimento e cultura na \"era da informação\" / This thesis reaffirms the importance of intergenerational exchange of experiences in the qualification of construction processes of knowledge and culture, in contemporaneity, based on the development of an educational and cultural mechanism - the Intergenerational Workshop - in an institution that assists children and youths in the community of Paraisópolis, located in the southern region of São Paulo. The research was based upon the assumptions of the collaborative methodology, where the subjects are understood and treated as creators of knowledge and culture that act in association with the researcher, building actions together around the common object of the intergenerational exchanges. By promoting the interruption in the usual daily flows of members of different age groups of the Paraisópolis community and of the PECP (Einstein Program in the Paraisópolis Community), Intergenerational Workshops promoted and allowed the emergence and the recreation of a stream of knowledge and practices that constitute, give support, confer, reconstruct identities, signs and relational and cultural practices. In other words, the meeting of the intergenerational knowledge and practices, added to the articulation of scientific, professional and experienced knowledge and doings, can be the way for the introduction of new and promising relationships between information and signification, preserving and valuing creative processes of knowledge and culture in the \"information age\".