In the context of reading strategy research, the present study explores changes with passage difficulty in the frequencies of occurrence of responses and strategies identified in expert readers' think-aloud protocols. Data consisted of tape recorded think-alouds collected from ten university undergraduates reading to summarize three expository passages ordered from simple to difficult by independent raters. Tapes were transcribed and six categories of responses and strategies were identified in subjects' protocols. The six categories, in order of frequency of occurrence, were: Metastatement, Problem Solving, Repetition, Surface Response, Surface Structure, and Divergent. There were significant differences across passage difficulty in expert readers' evidence of responses and strategies. The frequency of occurrence of problem solving increased significantly as subjects read increasingly difficult expository text. Both surface reactions to text and subjects' comments on their own reading, were high in frequency of occurrence only for the most difficult text. Interpretation suggests expert readers seem to engage with text through problem solving more often in reading more difficult text and demonstrate the existence of a lack of comprehension through reactions to the text and to their own reading. Implications for practice and research are discussed. / Graduate

The thesis deals with the increasing of business efficiency of the online store 4RIDERS. The aim of the thesis is the complex analysis, evaluation and recommendation of specific steps to modernize the online store 4RIDERS in terms of online marketing activities, strategies and technical solutions. The theoretical part describes the legislative and technical requirements necessary for the operation of the e-commerce and defines the basic concepts of online marketing and its tools, including online marketing strategy See-Think-Do-Care. In the practical part is processed by the situational analysis, analysis and evaluation of the current online marketing strategy according to the tools display ads, SEO, PPC, social networking, email marketing and shopping comparison sites. The main part of the thesis consists of the proposal of a new online marketing strategy based on the model See-Think-Do-Care. The thesis also deals with the analysis and evaluation of the current e-commerce solutions and recommendations for the new e-commerce platform with regard to the implementation of the suggested online marketing strategy.

Administrators who observe mathematics teachers need to have knowledge and an understanding of mathematics teaching and learning to effectively evaluate teachers and how their instructional practices relate to student thinking. This research study was conducted to illustrate the importance of understanding the thought process of administrators as they make decisions about teacher effectiveness based on what they notice during observations of mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this study was to examine what administrators attend to in the instructional environment and how what they notice influences their ability to identify the Common Core State Standards, Standards for Mathematical Practice. A purposive sample of six administrators engaged in cognitive interviews, known as think alouds, while observing two mathematics classroom videos. This study was designed to explore how administrators* instructional leadership knowledge or skills influence what they notice during mathematics instruction. There was evidence that administrators did notice aspects of the instructional environment pertaining to teachers, students, and, content. However, in this study it was found that administrators with an understanding of mathematics teaching and learning attended more to student*s mathematical thinking during instruction. It was also found that there was an increase of the administrators* mathematical language and attention to student interactions with mathematics content when the administrators were presented with a tool describing the elements of a classroom engaged in the Standards for Mathematical Practice.

Hemophilia is a genetic disorder that is caused by deficiencies in coagulation factor VIII and factor IX. Optimal management of hemophilia requires tailoring the dose of treatment to the individual patient’s need. This tailoring is based on several clinical considerations, for example, bleeding phenotype and desired level of activity, and estimated individual pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters. While a classical PK approach would require several post infusion blood samples taken over multiple days, a population PK approach might enable individual assessment using fewer samples. Health information technologies can support implementation of sophisticated, easily available, point-of care resources to estimate PK values with a population approach. The Web Accessible Population Pharmacokinetic Service-Hemophilia (WAPPS-Hemo) is a proposal for such a solution, developed at McMaster University. Once tested, it will be offered to hemophilia centres worldwide. The objective of the study was to investigate the ease of use (usability) of the WAPPS-Hemo web interface among clinicians and other people who treat hemophilia through two iterative cycles of usability testing. The total number of participants was 13, and they were physicians, nurses and research coordinators. The think aloud technique was selected for testing to gain feedback and comments on the participants’ thought processes while interacting with the system and discover interface design problems. Additionally, the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire was used to obtain data on user satisfaction. The initial assessment of the prototypal WAPPS-Hemo interface with SUS reported a score of 70.5, which is considered an above average score. We received many useful suggestions through two iterations of user testing, ending with a final SUS score of 73 after implementation of the suggested improvements. Verbal feedback from users in the second round showed that users experienced an easier and more intuitive interaction with the system. Usability testing and analyses were conducted in this study to discover user interface issues and to determine the usability and learnability of the WAPPS-Hemo service among various potential users. Through iterative cycles, application of the think aloud technique, and the SUS questionnaire, we optimized the usability of the WAPPS- Hemo program and have moved to implementation (June 2015). / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The objective of this study is to determine the effects of carrier gas viscosity of hydrogen and helium on column efficiency; particularly when employing thin films. When using thin films, mass transfer in the stationary phase becomes negligible and mass transfer in the mobile phase predominates. It was envisioned that when employing thin films hydrogen would be the carrier gas of choice due to its higher diffusivity and lower viscosity. The combination of the previous factors should lead to faster analyses (isothermal) and higher column efficiency with hydrogen. Viscosity is the resistance of a liquid or gas to flow. The viscosity of a gas is determined by two factors: (1) the molecular weight of the gas; and (2) its temperature. When the temperature or molecular weight of the gas is increased its viscosity is also increased. In a chromatographic system, with a constant pressure drop, an increase in viscosity results in a decrease in the linear velocity of the carrier gas, ultimately resulting in lower column efficiency. / Master of Science

中國被稱為是一個已崛起的世界大國已是不爭的事實。然而為何中國會迅速崛起，除了外在因素的配合外，最重要還是要歸功於鄧小平實施「改革開放」以來，社會知識增長，經濟蓬勃發展的緣故，其中中國政府高層對智庫及學者、專家的重視，使各項政策的出臺，在合理性、周延性、可操作性與前瞻性上大為提高應為重要成因。 毛澤東當政時期智庫幾乎不存在（尤其是文革時期）。鄧小平掌權後重建一些舊有研究機構，並陸續成立新的研究機構，是為中國現代智庫發展之濫觴。近30年來，中國官方智庫蓬勃發展，而民間智庫（尤其是政治、外交、軍事方面）卻因受政治環境的影響，出現巨大起伏變化，其後續發展值得觀察。 中國官方智庫扮演的角色頗多，與美國等西方智庫比較，其中擔任政府政策宣傳者的角色，以及作為情報機關的掩護機構，較為特殊，另外部份官方智庫已成為政府與外國「二軌」對話之主要管道。在功能上，由於中國由落後中崛起，故其發揮之功能頗為顯著，至於「旋轉門」及儲備與提供高層官員人才二項功能，由於中國遴選人才制度的關係，目前發揮有限，惟未來可望逐漸提升。 由於政治制度的不同，中國智庫相較於西方，有以下三點差異，第一、高度的壟斷性，面對民間智庫的競爭相對較少；第二、經費來源單一、量少；第三、可透過一種屬於常態卻「非正規」管道直接提供高層政策建議，發揮其影響力。 中國民間智庫因為法律註冊問題及政治信任問題，生存發展遭受挫折，針對中國特有的政治環境，吾人以為中國智庫未來可能出現以下的發展走向：一、續將部份官方研究機構改為民間（或半官方）智庫，二、調整法律註冊方式，開放民眾成立真正民間智庫。 / China, being called a rising world strong power, is an indisputable fact.Why can China rise rapidly? Apart from external factors to support its development, the most important internal factor is the social and economical grows due to the “reform and opening” policy of Deng Xiaoping. With consulting to think tanks, scholars and experts, Chinese government carry out national policy in a more rational, compre- hensive, feasible, far-sighted way. One could hardly find a think tank in Mao’s period (especially during the Cultural Revolution). After Deng came to power, he reconstructed some research institutions and established new ones, which became Chinese modern think tanks later on. China's official think tanks have acted vigorously for nearly 30 years. However, the non-official think tanks (especially in the areas of politics, diplomacy, and military) have gone through huge ups and downs with the changing of political environment. The subsequent development of the think tanks needs to be watched closely. Compared with think tanks in the West, China's official think tanks play multiple roles. They not only serve as media for government propaganda, but also act as fronts for intelligence agencies. Further- more, some of the official think tanks have served as the "dual-track" channels to communicate with foreign governments. Think tanks play important roles for China’s development in recent years. Their func- tions, however, as a “revolving door” and human power providers, are still limited. It is expected that above situation will change gradually. There are at least three differences between Chinese think tanks and the western ones. First, a high degree of monopoly- there is little competition from non-official think tanks. Second, they have a single and limited source of funding. Third, they provide policy suggestions to the government officers through normal, but "informal" channels. It is difficult to register as a “think tank” in China. Even a think tank can register legally; it’s still hard to get political trust from the government. This thesis finds that there are two possibilities for the development of Chinese think tanks in the future. First, Chinese government will transfer the government research institutes to non-official (or semi-official) think tanks. Second, Chinese government will amend the law to allow the public to set up non-official think tanks.

<p>Syftet med den här processorienterade studien var att undersöka hur texttypen påverkar översättningsprocessen, och närmare bestämt om olika texttyper aktualiserar olika fokus i de kognitiva processerna. Fyra deltagare fick därför översätta två olika källtexter, en operativ och en informativ. Materialet samlades in med hjälp av Think-Aloud (TA). Studien visar att de båda texterna huvudsakligen gav upphov till liknande fokus. Texttypen verkar således inte ha haft någon märkbar påverkan på översättningsprocessen i det aktuella fallet. Vad gäller deltagarnas individuella processer fokuserade flera av dem på liknande faktorer oberoende av källtexten, vilket antyder att processerna i viss utsträckning kan antas vara individuellt betingade.</p> / <p>The aim of the present study was to investigate whether different text types bring different focuses to the fore in the cognitive processes during translation. Four translator students were thus asked to translate one operative and one informative text while verbalizing their thoughts. The verbalizations were recorded and later transcribed into so called think-aloud protocols (TAPs). The analysis of the TAPs showed that the participants focused on similar aspects regardless of the source text, which indicates that the text type did not have any significant effect on the translation process in the study at hand.</p>

Tidigare studier visar att det finns skillnader mellan flickor och pojkar avseende hur de upplever ämnet matematik, vilket återspeglas i utbildnings- och yrkesval. Tidigare studier visar även att det finns skillnader mellan flickor och pojkar avseende hur de lär och tänker när de löser matematiska problem och attlärare inte alltidtar hänsyn till dessa skillnader. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur flickor och pojkar löser aritmetiska uppgifter genom kognitiva, kroppsliga och externa strategier samt likheter och skillnader mellan flickor och pojkar. Totalt har 23 barn (11 flickor och 12 pojkar) i grundskolans årskurs ett löst nio aritmetiska och fyra andra matematiska uppgifter. Barnen instruerades att tänka högt och blev videofilmade. Resultaten visar att pojkarna oftare använder kognitiva strategier (75% av uppgifterna) än flickorna gör (66%). Särskilt ofta använder pojkarna de kognitiva strategier som kallas härledning och talfakta (62%) medan flickorna använder dessa strategier mindre ofta (40%). Flickorna använder oftare kognitiva och kroppsliga strategier där de räknar upp eller ned (49%) än pojkarna gör (20%). Flickorna använder även oftare kroppsliga strategier (30%) än pojkarna gör (13%). Dessa skillnader pekar på att lärare bör kartlägga vilka strategier eleverna använder för att därigenom kunna anpassa sin undervisning. / Previous research show there are differences between girls and boys as it comes to how they experience school mathematics, which has consequences for educational and professional career choices. Previous studies also show there are differences between girls and boys concerning how they learn and think when solving mathemtical problems and that teachers do not always take these differences into consideration. This study aims at describing and anaysing how girls and boys solve arithemtic tasks by using cognitive, bodily and external strategies and similarities and differences betweeen girls and boys. In total, 23 children (11 girls and 12 boys) first graders in elementary school solved nine arithmetic and four other mathematical tasks. The children were instructed to think aloud and they were video recorded. The results show that boys more often used cognitive strategies (in 75% of tasks) than girls did (66%). In particular, the boys tended to use the cognitive strategies that are called decomposition and direct retrieval of artithmetic facts (62%) while the girls used these strategies less often (40%). The girls more often used cognitive and bodily strategies involving counting up or down (49%) than the boys did (20%). The girls more often used bodily strategies (30%) than the boys did (13%). These differences indicate that teachers should be provided tools for mapping strategies that pupils use in order to be able to adapt their teaching to individual differences.

Are men and women equally likely to be perceived by people to possess similar requisite characteristics in comparable yet diverse occupations within management, leadership, and entrepreneurship? Because modern workplaces continue to be impacted by the persistence of varying perceptions of men and women about requisite attributes of successful people in several organizational roles, the concept of gender bias and occupational stereotypes has warranted the attention of theoreticians, scholars, and practitioners to a large extent (Koch, D’Mello, & Sackett, 2015; Kuwabara & Thébaud, 2017; Pinker, 2003; Pinker & Spelke, 2005). Although empirical evidence clearly indicates that gender inequalities in the workplace can have a significant effect on peoples’ perceptions about different characteristics of individuals in general and in specific organizational roles, there is a paucity of research examining these perceptions in a variety of leadership positions. Previous literature has investigated the gendered construction and re-construction of these professions but only to a limited extent (Gupta, Turban, Wasti, & Sikdar, 2009; Heilman, 2001, 2012; Heilman, Wallen, Fuchs, & Tamkins, 2004; Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011; Kuwabara & Thébaud, 2017; Ryan, Haslam, Hersby, & Bongiorno, 2011; Schein, 1973, 1975, 2001). However, research in years past has not yet examined the full range of industry and entrepreneurial contexts that may create gender typecasting of roles. By extension, the current study focuses on how the gender-differentiated perceptions of men and women influenced the requisite characteristics of successful professional personnel in various managerial, leadership, and entrepreneurial positions. Specifically, given that these professions are influenced by gender-role expectations and stereotypes, this empirical investigation drew from role congruity theory of prejudice (Eagly & Karau, 2002) to examine the relative degree of perceived overlap between the traits associated with specific roles in management, leadership, and entrepreneurship with the traits commonly associated with men and women in general. Primary data were obtained from a diverse sample of 600 (12 x 50) working adults in the United States (N = 600, 300 women, 300 men) between the ages of 21 and 65. This was accomplished using an online survey designed via Qualtrics and administered through Amazon’s MTurk, from the lens of the classic think manager-think male (TMTM) research paradigm (Schein, 1973, 1975, 2001). The instrument used for data collection was the 92-item Schein Descriptive Index (SDI), which was used to describe sex role stereotypes and perceived requisite characteristics of twelve distinct target groups. The results of this study indicate that the perceived requisite traits of successful leaders and entrepreneurs are construed in predominantly masculine terms. These findings support and further inform the nature, existence, significance, and persistence of the “think manager-think male stereotype effect” (TMTM effect) and the “glass ceiling phenomenon” across a variety of managerial, leadership, and entrepreneurial roles, contexts, and industries. The TMTM effect was stronger among high tech entrepreneurs, CEOs, and entrepreneurs in general, whereas it was lessened for entrepreneurs in educational and health care roles, as well as for middle managers. Additionally, consistent with prior research, TMTM effects were generally either more likely to occur, or were stronger in magnitude among male raters than among female raters. These results largely support role congruity theory of gender differences in management and leadership that indicate incongruity of female gender stereotypes in general with stereotypes about high-status and prominent occupational roles in various organizations (Eagly & Karau, 2002). Specifically, the perceived trait overlap was noted to generally be stronger between men in general and successful leaders in various roles than that between women in general and successful leaders in various similar roles. The findings of the current study are expected to be valuable for those seeking to encourage opportunity regardless of candidate gender in management, entrepreneurship, and leadership, as well as for those promoting the role of women’s advancement in these professions. The study’s results have both theoretical and practical implications. Understanding these perceptions can have a significant impact on the gender biases prevalent in society, in organizations, and even across the specific entrepreneurial contexts and industries investigated within the current study. In today’s super-competitive business environment, firms must appreciate the importance of fostering equal opportunity, avoiding gender biases, and facilitating racial and ethnic diversity.

A travers l’étude de l’émergence et de l’évolution de l’espace de la recherche non étatique en sciences sociales en Biélorussie la thèse revisite la frontière entre la science et la politique et aborde la question de l’engagement intellectuel dans le contexte des transformations postsoviétiques. En 1992, en s’inspirant du modèle des think tanks, des entrepreneurs intellectuels biélorusses ont fondé les premières organisations privées de recherche. Le nouveau mode professionnalisé de production intellectuelle est alors conçu comme un instrument de la « désoviétisation » de la science et de la « démocratisation » de la politique. Les transformations autoritaires de 1995-1996 ont marginalisé cet espace au sein du champ du pouvoir et ont provoqué sa politisation contestataire. Vers 2006 la quasi-totalité des centres fonctionnaient en dehors des cadres légaux. La nouvelle génération de chercheurs qui arrive dans les années 2000 contribue à la reproduction de son caractère à la fois engagé et professionnel. Un nouveau système de relations entre les agents du champ politique et les think tankers permet à ces derniers de prétendre aux rôles d’« experts indépendants » et d’« intellectuels engagés ». / Studying the evolution of the space of non-state social science research in Belarus, this thesis re-examines the border between science and politics, and raises the question of political role of intellectuals in post-soviet societies. In 1992, inspired by the think tank model, the Belarusian intellectual entrepreneurs set up the first national private research institutes. The new professional mode of intellectual production was presented as a tool for “de-sovietisation” of science and “democratisation” of politics. The 1995-1996 authoritarian transformation marginalised the non-state research in the field of power. In 2006, most private research institutes lose legal status and operate informally. Nonetheless, the new generation of think tankers reproduce the professional and protest character of the non-state research. In the new relations system that connects them with agents of the political field, the think tankers continue to claim the roles of “independent experts” and “public intellectuals”.