Originated in Taiwan, HTC is a pride of Taiwan that it proves the Taiwanese company can be excellent not only in cellphone OEM/ODM industry but also it is possible to be an OBM which is known to the world. In April 2011, HTC (2498.TW) stock price reached as high as NT$1,300, while stockholders were rejoicing over the seeming success, soon when it came to Q4 2011, however, it announced an income drop of 41.1% compared to the previous quarter. From August till October 2012, the stock price had been lingering around NT$250 to NT$280. Close to Taiwan, Samsung from South Korea has become the number one in the mobile phone sales market in Q2 2012. Reported by Gartner, in Q2 2011, Samsung had taken the market share by 16.3% and it climbed to 21.6% in Q2 2012, which was its first time to defeat Nokia, whose market share was 19.9%. Today, Samsung has been the new leader in the mobile phone industry. Samsung arose from a humble beginning but it is now on the top of the world; however, once always compared side by side, is HTC still able to compete against Samsung today? Samsung has developed its unique competitive advantages to dominate the market. HTC, however, traditionally strong in design, is striving to “coming back,” which was the promise of HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou, in a letter addressing to the employees. Now it’s the high time to review HTC’s strategies in the market. The study collects the resources related to how Samsung, as a successful multinational firm, utilizes competitive strategies, and then analyzes the possibilities to apply those to HTC. It is expected to provide practical suggestions to HTC, with anticipation of its coming back.

This thesis reports on a multi-phased research project conducted to evaluate the use of the Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) approach with adults with stroke. Current approaches to motor recovery, called systems approaches, suggest that movement arises from a dynamic interaction among several different systems, including perception, cognition, and action, all within the context of the individual and his or her environment. CO-OP is an established treatment approach for children with motor-based performance problems that takes into account interactions among several systems, as well as individual needs and environmental factors. CO-OP is a client-centred, problem solving approach based on the theoretical foundations of learning and motor learning theory. The objectives of this project were: to examine the efficacy of CO-OP to improve motor skill acquisition and performance in adults living with chronic stroke; to explore other benefits of the approach; and to identify adaptations for use with adults with stroke. Two series of single case experimental studies were conducted, with three participants completing each. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Findings from the single case experiments provide evidence that CO-OP is associated with performance improvements in both trained and untrained self-selected goals in adults more than one year post stroke. As well, pre-post measures suggest there may be changes in performance satisfaction, motor control, generalized use of the affected upper extremity, and self-efficacy. Interview findings provided valuable information about the experiences of participants with the approach; the interview respondents enjoyed the increased sense of responsibility that came with problem solving on their own, but expressed a desire to have ongoing professional support. Suggestions for modifications to CO-OP for use adults with stroke are made. CO-OP is a promising approach to improve functional independence in adults with stroke. Future research is warranted.

In this thesis, the decision analysis process of investigating the best optimal strategy for Tehran water management in 2021 is described. Such process is normally divided into four steps including: structuring the problem; identifying feasible strategies, their impact and uncertainty; quantifying preferences; and evaluation of countermeasures and sensitivity analysis. Here, in order to structure the problem, the characteristics of Tehran with respect to water issues and its history of water management are reviewed. The state of surface waters and ground waters and a description of Tehran plan for waste water treatment are given, the most significant constraints of Tehran water sector are classified and the challenges of climate change and variability are explained. The feasible adaptation strategies are designed subsequently based on that classification, data extracted from a survey and a number of interviews with water officials and managers and ordinary citizens in Tehran. Each strategy contains a series of separate measures with different weights. The phase of quantifying preferences and elucidating utility functions is conducted based on the data available from previous studies and also the current survey. The measures include: installing water saving devices, awareness raising to change citizens’ water consumption pattern, adding new sources of surface water, investing on waste water utilization, migration control and repairing water distribution network.Different combinations of these measures provide different possibilities for formulating adaptation strategies. We compare two more discussed adaptation strategies of the spectrum of strategies; one is inclined toward exploiting more water resources while the other one is more focused on demand management. The former is mainly supported by water officials and the latter advocated by water experts we interviewed. The criteria of comparison are social acceptability, economic feasibility, time-efficiency and environmental tenability. By considering the uncertainty attributed to the criteria weights, the WEB-HIPRE DSS analysis shows that the demand-oriented strategy is the optimal one in most cases, however, if time-efficiency and/or economic feasibility gain very high significance, the strategy of water officials wins over that of experts.

This study presents an account of the lived-experience of internationally-trained midwives who have immigrated to Canada, attended a bridging program to reaccredit as a midwife, and currently meet the requirements for registration with the College of Midwives of Ontario. Ten internationally-trained midwives were interviewed about their experience of this transition in their life. The interviews were then subjected to a qualitative analysis based on the principles of grounded theory. The findings outline the experience of immigration and reaccreditation focusing on the barriers and challenges faced by these female immigrants. The impact on the individual’s sense of identity was explored. Coping strategies used by the participants were investigated.

Quantitative relationships were established between speech intelligibility and gaze patterns when subjects listened to sentences spoken by a single talker at different auditory SNRs while viewing one or more talkers. When the auditory SNR was reduced and subjects moved their eyes freely, the main gaze strategy involved looking closer to the mouth. The natural tendency to move closer to the mouth was found to be consistent with a gaze strategy that helps subjects improve their speech intelligibility in environments that include multiple talkers. With a single talker and a fixed point of gaze, subjects' speech intelligibility was found to be optimal for fixations that were distributed within 10 degrees of the center of the mouth. Lower performance was observed at larger eccentricities, and this decrease in performance was investigated by mapping the reduced acuity in the peripheral region to various levels of spatial degradation.

Quantitative relationships were established between speech intelligibility and gaze patterns when subjects listened to sentences spoken by a single talker at different auditory SNRs while viewing one or more talkers. When the auditory SNR was reduced and subjects moved their eyes freely, the main gaze strategy involved looking closer to the mouth. The natural tendency to move closer to the mouth was found to be consistent with a gaze strategy that helps subjects improve their speech intelligibility in environments that include multiple talkers. With a single talker and a fixed point of gaze, subjects' speech intelligibility was found to be optimal for fixations that were distributed within 10 degrees of the center of the mouth. Lower performance was observed at larger eccentricities, and this decrease in performance was investigated by mapping the reduced acuity in the peripheral region to various levels of spatial degradation.

The purpose of this study is through a teacher perspective gain insight to the knowledge former Sodertorn teacher students possess of intercultural pedagogy and if they use it at work. The studies main perspective is the intercultural perspective, which has been the study's lead perspective. This study also made use out of a sociocultural perspective as it fits with the intercultural perspective and puts its mark in the study. This study has used interviews for data collection. Five former Sodertorn teacher students were interviewed, the interview participants work as teachers. These five teachers’ experiences and statements were the focus of this study, the teachers had to demonstrate their intercultural skills and how they use these skills in their classroom. The study showed that four out of five interviewed teachers use intercultural education, these teachers always try to find students development zones and prior knowledge. Intercultural pedagogy approach for example focuses on the students' culture, knowledge, belongings and background. The four out of five interview participants that use intercultural pedagogy hope that their students get a deeper understanding of people that possess a different culture, religion and background. The four out of five teachers use intercultural strategies and these strategies are considered applicable when it comes to intercultural perspective.

This study presents an account of the lived-experience of internationally-trained midwives who have immigrated to Canada, attended a bridging program to reaccredit as a midwife, and currently meet the requirements for registration with the College of Midwives of Ontario. Ten internationally-trained midwives were interviewed about their experience of this transition in their life. The interviews were then subjected to a qualitative analysis based on the principles of grounded theory. The findings outline the experience of immigration and reaccreditation focusing on the barriers and challenges faced by these female immigrants. The impact on the individual’s sense of identity was explored. Coping strategies used by the participants were investigated.

Modern society is structured around consumption. The climate of the current consumer culture is one of intense competition. In order to differentiate their brands and products, companies are beginning to focus on differentiating their brands on the basis of distinctive emotional, rather than functional, characteristics. Emotional brand attachment is defined as the bond that connects a consumer with a specific brand by involving feelings of affection, passion, and connection. When established, emotional brand attachment is a powerful tool for building brand equity and influencing the purchasing decisions of consumers. This paper explores the marketing tactics utilized by Dove brand and Nike, Inc. Although the means were different, both companies successfully generated emotional brand attachment between their products and modern consumers.

This thesis reports on a multi-phased research project conducted to evaluate the use of the Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) approach with adults with stroke. Current approaches to motor recovery, called systems approaches, suggest that movement arises from a dynamic interaction among several different systems, including perception, cognition, and action, all within the context of the individual and his or her environment. CO-OP is an established treatment approach for children with motor-based performance problems that takes into account interactions among several systems, as well as individual needs and environmental factors. CO-OP is a client-centred, problem solving approach based on the theoretical foundations of learning and motor learning theory. The objectives of this project were: to examine the efficacy of CO-OP to improve motor skill acquisition and performance in adults living with chronic stroke; to explore other benefits of the approach; and to identify adaptations for use with adults with stroke. Two series of single case experimental studies were conducted, with three participants completing each. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Findings from the single case experiments provide evidence that CO-OP is associated with performance improvements in both trained and untrained self-selected goals in adults more than one year post stroke. As well, pre-post measures suggest there may be changes in performance satisfaction, motor control, generalized use of the affected upper extremity, and self-efficacy. Interview findings provided valuable information about the experiences of participants with the approach; the interview respondents enjoyed the increased sense of responsibility that came with problem solving on their own, but expressed a desire to have ongoing professional support. Suggestions for modifications to CO-OP for use adults with stroke are made. CO-OP is a promising approach to improve functional independence in adults with stroke. Future research is warranted.