<p>This thesis investigates acquisition of negation and focus particles in oral L2 French. It concerns adverbs of addition (aussi, encore), restriction (seulement) and temporal contrast (déjà, encore). These items all lack independent referential value i.e. they depend on other constituents in an utterance for their interpretation, they are not structurally obligatory and they variably affect other constituents in an utterance. The learner has to capture the significance of each item, its syntactic position and its pragmatic function in a given context.</p><p>The study aims at describing the development in oral production of 24 Swedish learners, beginners to very advanced, and 6 native speakers, in all together 80 interviews, in order to postulate an acquisitional itinerary.</p><p>The analysis consists of two parts. The first one concerns negation types such as non in various functions, constituent negation (pas X), phrasal negation (ne…pas) and semi-negations (ne…aucun/jamais/personne/rien). The results show, inter alia, that non is used in different pragmatic functions at different levels of acquisition. At the initial stage, non is also used idiosyncratically as a constituent negation and as a preverbal phrasal negation. At the post-initial stage, where also the verbs are mainly finite, phrasal negation (ne) pas is post-verbal. Furthermore, the analysis showed that jamais and rien appear prior to the other semi-negations. In the second part, the use of focus particles is analyzed. The study revealed that the additive particle aussi appears first, in an initial or final position of an utterance, followed by additive encore and restrictive seulement at the post-initial stage and that the temporal adverbs encore and déjà are almost solely used by advanced learners. An acquisitional sequence was postulated, with idiosyncratic negation and additive focus particles appearing previous to post-verbal negation and restrictive particles. The temporal adverbs of contrast appear at the advanced stages.</p>

This thesis investigates the use and development of dislocations in oral productions by Swedish users of French as a second language (L2). Dislocations are highly frequent in French oral speech and play an essential role in building utterances. L2 users of French must therefore acquire the grammatical means necessary to build this structure as well as the pragmatic principles underlying its use. The study is empirical, and based on a corpus of oral productions from a wide range of non-native speakers (NNS), from beginners studying at university to L2 users who have spent many years in France. The analysis also includes oral productions from a control group of native speakers (NS). The aim is to identify a path of development by which the different forms and functions of dislocations are acquired. Furthermore, the study examines the influence of tasks on the use of dislocations, by analysing two tasks which place very different demands on the informants in terms of cognitive effort, namely interviews and retellings. The analysis focuses on two main kinds of dislocations: on the one hand, [moi je VP] (and its syntactical variants); on the other hand, dislocations referring to third entities (such as [NP il VP] and [NP c'est X]). The results show that both kinds go through a process of development in French L2. However, French learners seem to master the lexical dislocations referring to third entities as well as their pragmatic rules of use from the first stages of acquisition, yet with deviances in some cases. On the other hand, the frequency of use of [moi je VP] and its syntactical variants correlates highly with the level of development of the NNS. Moreover, there is a significantly greater frequency of dislocations in the NNS retelling tasks than in their interviews. In the NS group, the frequency of use remains comparable in both tasks. This difference between NS and NNS is probably due to the additional cognitive load that retellings demand compared with interviews—e.g., recalling the succession of events, solving the lexical problems posed by the story that is to be retold. It is proposed that this additional load may trigger, as a compensation strategy, an increase in the frequency of use of dislocations in the NNS speech.

This thesis investigates acquisition of negation and focus particles in oral L2 French. It concerns adverbs of addition (aussi, encore), restriction (seulement) and temporal contrast (déjà, encore). These items all lack independent referential value i.e. they depend on other constituents in an utterance for their interpretation, they are not structurally obligatory and they variably affect other constituents in an utterance. The learner has to capture the significance of each item, its syntactic position and its pragmatic function in a given context. The study aims at describing the development in oral production of 24 Swedish learners, beginners to very advanced, and 6 native speakers, in all together 80 interviews, in order to postulate an acquisitional itinerary. The analysis consists of two parts. The first one concerns negation types such as non in various functions, constituent negation (pas X), phrasal negation (ne…pas) and semi-negations (ne…aucun/jamais/personne/rien). The results show, inter alia, that non is used in different pragmatic functions at different levels of acquisition. At the initial stage, non is also used idiosyncratically as a constituent negation and as a preverbal phrasal negation. At the post-initial stage, where also the verbs are mainly finite, phrasal negation (ne) pas is post-verbal. Furthermore, the analysis showed that jamais and rien appear prior to the other semi-negations. In the second part, the use of focus particles is analyzed. The study revealed that the additive particle aussi appears first, in an initial or final position of an utterance, followed by additive encore and restrictive seulement at the post-initial stage and that the temporal adverbs encore and déjà are almost solely used by advanced learners. An acquisitional sequence was postulated, with idiosyncratic negation and additive focus particles appearing previous to post-verbal negation and restrictive particles. The temporal adverbs of contrast appear at the advanced stages.

This thesis investigates the use and development of dislocations in oral productions by Swedish users of French as a second language (L2). Dislocations are highly frequent in French oral speech and play an essential role in building utterances. L2 users of French must therefore acquire the grammatical means necessary to build this structure as well as the pragmatic principles underlying its use. The study is empirical, and based on a corpus of oral productions from a wide range of non-native speakers (NNS), from beginners studying at university to L2 users who have spent many years in France. The analysis also includes oral productions from a control group of native speakers (NS). The aim is to identify a path of development by which the different forms and functions of dislocations are acquired. Furthermore, the study examines the influence of tasks on the use of dislocations, by analysing two tasks which place very different demands on the informants in terms of cognitive effort, namely interviews and retellings. The analysis focuses on two main kinds of dislocations: on the one hand, [moi je VP] (and its syntactical variants); on the other hand, dislocations referring to third entities (such as [NP il VP] and [NP c’est X]). The results show that both kinds go through a process of development in French L2. However, French learners seem to master the lexical dislocations referring to third entities as well as their pragmatic rules of use from the first stages of acquisition, yet with deviances in some cases. On the other hand, the frequency of use of [moi je VP] and its syntactical variants correlates highly with the level of development of the NNS. Moreover, there is a significantly greater frequency of dislocations in the NNS retelling tasks than in their interviews. In the NS group, the frequency of use remains comparable in both tasks. This difference between NS and NNS is probably due to the additional cognitive load that retellings demand compared with interviews—e.g., recalling the succession of events, solving the lexical problems posed by the story that is to be retold. It is proposed that this additional load may trigger, as a compensation strategy, an increase in the frequency of use of dislocations in the NNS speech.

OBJETIVO: Evaluar la salud percibida en fumadores de cigarrillos según las etapas del cambio. METODOLOGIA: Se estudiaron 253 personas mediante el cuestionario de salud SF-36 cada 6 meses durante dos años. RESULTADOS: Después del abandono del tabaco mejora la Evolución Declarada de la Salud y las percepciones de salud del componente físico y mental. Los fumadores que siguen fumando pero progresan en las etapas del cambio experimentan un descenso en Función Física, Salud General y en el Componente Sumario Físico. La recaída en el tabaquismo se asocia a peor Vitalidad y Salud Mental, y a considerar el consumo de tabaco como causa del deterioro actual de la salud. CONCLUSIONES: Se observa una peor percepción de salud física al plantearse el abandono del consumo de tabaco a medio plazo, una mejoría global de la salud percibida al dejar de fumar y una peor salud emocional en la recaída. / OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the health-related quality of life in smokers with different stages of change. METHODOLOGY: 250 subjects evaluating their perception of health every 6 months for two years through the SF-36 health questionnaire. RESULTS: After stopping smoking, the Self-evaluated Health Transition improves, and the perception of health improves both in physical and mental components. Smokers that do not stop smoking but progress in the stages of change experience a fall in Physical Functioning, General Health and in the Physical Component Summary. Relapse in the use of tobacco is associated with a worsening in the Vitality and Mental Health, considering smoking to be a cause of deterioration in the state of health. CONCLUSIONS: Worse perception of physical health is observed when stopping smoking is contemplated as a medium-term objective, an overall improvement in health is observed on stopping smoking, and worse emotional health is observed in the case of relapse.

Emissions of radionuclides to the atmosphere can lead to wet deposition on plants in theevent of rainfall. An increased level of radioactivity in the plants may occur due tointerception and retention of the radionuclides. If the content of the plants is above thethreshold limit value, entire yields may have to be destroyed. In order to preventcontamination or decrease the content countermeasures can be taken. The impact of thebiomass, leaf area index (LAI) and growth stage of the plant on the interception andretention is important to know in order to decide which countermeasures to use.Weather may also be an important factor. In this work the interception and retention of 134Cs and 85Sr by spring wheat, ley andspring oil-seed rape was studied. The impact of the biomass, LAI and growth stage ofthe plant and precipitation after deposition was also studied. The work was conducted asa field study with plots of the size 1 x 1 m. The plants were wet deposited with 134Cs and 85Sr by using a rain simulator. A total activity of 40 kBq/m2 for both radionuclideswas deposited on each plot. Depositions were performed during four different growthstages and the plants were sampled approximately four hours, one and five days afterdeposition. Activities of the dried plant samples were measured with a High PurityGermanium (HPGe) detector. Finally the interception fraction and the retention factorwere calculated. The study showed that the interception fraction was highest for the third growth stagefor both wheat and oil-seed rape; dough ripeness for wheat and ripening for oil-seedrape. Ley, which was harvested after two depositions, had the highest interceptionfraction at the second growth stage, flowering. Oil-seed rape and ley seemed to have aslightly higher interception fraction for 85Sr at all growth stages. There was a positiverelationship for the biomass and interception fraction, for the LAI and interceptionfraction the relationship wasn’t significant. The retention showed a weak trend ofdecreasing with time, with the decrease being largest during the first day after theinterception. However, the standard deviation was large and consequently the values uncertain. / Utsläpp av radionuklider till atmosfären kan genom regn leda till att de våtdeponeras påväxter. Radionukliderna kan då fångas upp av växterna och hållas kvar vilket kanresultera i förhöjda halter av radioaktivitet hos växterna. Om detta leder till attgränsvärden överskrids kan kassering av växter som används vid livsmedelsproduktionvara nödvändig. Motåtgärder kan vidtas för att undvika kontaminering eller minskahalterna. För att veta vilka motåtgärder som ska användas är det viktigt att veta hurväxtens biomassa, bladyteindex (LAI), utvecklingsstadium samt väderförhållandenpåverkar uppfångningen och kvarhållningen. I detta arbete undersöktes uppfångningen och kvarhållningen av 134Cs och 85Sr hosvårvete, vall och vårraps. Inverkan av växtens biomassa, LAI och utvecklingsstadiumsamt nederbörd efter deponering undersöktes också. Arbetet genomfördes som ettfältförsök med försöksrutor med storleken 1 x 1 m. Växterna våtdeponerades med 134Csoch 85Sr med hjälp av en regnsimulator. En total aktivitet på 40 kBq/m2 för bådaradionukliderna deponerades per försöksruta. Deponeringar skedde under fyra olikaväxtutvecklingsstadier och växtprover togs ungefär fyra timmar efter deponering samtett och fem dygn senare. Aktiviteten hos de torkade växtproverna mättes med en HighPurity Germanium (HPGe) detektor. Därefter beräknades uppfångningsfraktioner ochkvarhållningsfaktorer. Försöket visade att uppfångningsfraktionen var störst vid det tredjeväxtutvecklingsstadiet för både vete och raps; degmognad för vete och fröutveckling förraps. Vallen, som slogs av efter två deponeringar, uppvisade störst uppfångningsfraktionvid andra växtutvecklingsstadiet, blomning. Hos raps och vall verkadeuppfångningsfraktionen för 85Sr vara något högre vid samtliga växtutvecklingsstadier.För biomassan och uppfångningsfraktionen fanns ett positivt samband, för LAI ochuppfångningsfraktionen var sambandet inte signifikant. Kvarhållningen visade en svagtrend att minska med tiden, minskningen var störst under det första dygnet efteruppfångningen. Dock var standardavvikelsen stor och värden därmed osäkra.

Low photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) during certain growth periods of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) has been shown to impact yield, ethylene synthesis, and fiber quality. Previous research with shading has shown that lint yield can be significantly reduced in the latter stages of growth. This two-year field study was conducted at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Farm in Burleson County, Texas, in 2008 and 2009. The study evaluated the impact of an 8-day period of shade (63 percent reduction of PPFD) on cotton yield parameters, fiber quality, and the impact of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), an ethylene inhibitor, to alter detrimental cotton responses when applied as a foliar spray under shaded and non-shaded conditions. Shade and 1-MCP were imposed at four developmental stages of growth: pinhead square (PHS), first flower (FF), peak flower (PF), and boll development (BD). Data pooled over both years indicated that there were no significant differences in yield for 1-MCP treatments; however, numerical differences existed. Shade applied during the BD stage of development showed significantly lower yield than the untreated control. These results showed a decline in seed cotton and ginned seed cotton by 522 and 207 kg ha-1, respectively. To further analyze further yield components, box-mapping was conducted during both years. However, this data failed to explain consistent patterns of the observed yield responses. Data was also collected to determine the amount of fibers per seed and seed weights. Cotton fiber data did not show consistent correlations with the numerical increases and significant decreases in yield. Electrolyte leakage and stomatal conductance data also were collected. Electrolyte leakage showed no statistical differences when compared to the untreated control. Stomatal conductance measurements showed no consistency for treatments during both years.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the adequacy of the Stages of Change model in a group therapy treatment program for male batterers. The sample consisted of three groups with a total sample size of 22 participants. Data for this study were obtained by administering the Safe at Home Instrument and the Group Climate Questionnaire – Short Form. Results indicated the Safe at Home Instrument had limited clinical utility with involuntary male batterers. Independent of scoring method used, the majority of participants reached the action stage early in group treatment. Because the action stage is the highest stage attainable in this study, further growth was not measurable. The lack of variability in participants’ scores on the Safe at Home Instrument limits its clinical usefulness. Results from the Group Climate Questionnaire – Short Form indicate the groups did not progress according to a popular group development theory (MacKenzie & Livesley, 1983). The groups appear to enter the differentiation stage but do not successfully master the developmental issues needed to progress through the subsequent stages. The results from both instruments indicate that treatment groups with involuntary, male batterers did not progress as expected. Recommendations for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

L’entreprise qui se développe à l’international est confrontée à la nécessité d’acquérir des informations sur les nouveaux marchés, grâce notamment à des études export. Cette recherche s’intéresse au processus d’identification du chargé d’étude, appelé mode d’acquisition de l’information. Elle démontre que celui-ci fait partie d’un système d’acquisition d’information qui a pour objectif la réduction contrôlée de l’ambigüité des marchés. Elle décrit l’émergence de ce système, son fonctionnement et le processus d’identification du chargé d’étude. Les caractéristiques du système variant avec le niveau d’internationalisation et le degré d’apprentissage de l’organisation, le choix du mode d’acquisition de l’information évolue lui aussi avec le stade de développement international de l’entreprise. / When an organization develops on foreign markets, it has to collect information on that market. Export research is one way to acquire that information. This research focuses on the identification process of the export market researcher, designated as information acquisition mode. We aim to demonstrate that this acquisition mode is part of a system whose objective is to reduce the perceived ambiguity of markets in a controlled fashion. We describe the emergence of the system, its functioning and the identification process of the information acquisition mode. Since the characteristics of the system vary according to the level of internationalization and learning of the organization, we show that the choice of the acquisition mode is also impacted by the international development stage of the company.