This thesis draws on the voices of the young people who will be affected by the government’s proposal to increase the age of participation in education and training to 18 by 2015, voices which are otherwise overlooked in policy formulation and much research. The young people most affected are those who currently do not participate in education or training after the age of 16. The thesis takes a phenomenological approach, building understanding from the young people’s perspectives of their life-worlds and their reasons for not participating and exploring their response to their particular circumstances as perceived by them. The thesis explores their understanding through focus groups held in one local authority in South East England, comprising urban and rural settings. The thesis highlights factors that impede young people’s participation from their own perspectives, which fall into three categories: physical factors; social factors; and emotional factors. Nationally, the government has confirmed its commitment to raising the participation age by 2015, yet many of the government’s policies are exacerbating the challenges that young people face. This study concludes that the barriers highlighted by young people in relation to physical factors; social factors; and emotional factors are neglected in the current policy drive to full participation to age 18 and this needs urgent attention if the policy is to succeed. The thesis proposes a model which is offered for future policy and practice development to give greater weight to the perspectives of young people in relation to participation as expressed in this research. There is a risk if their concerns are not addressed that young people who have experienced a failure by the system and associated damaged self esteem, are now further pathologised, and potentially criminalised, for failing to fulfil their duty to participate. Yet, a more holistic approach that addresses the broader issues highlighted by this research, could realise pathways into further education and training that redress some of the previous negative experience and restore their confidence for the future.

Dominant approaches in film studies reflect the deeply-rooted assumption – inherited in large part from Marx and Foucault – that human nature and human history are inherently characterized by conflict and the struggle for power. However, this normative adversarialism prevents us from acknowledging the experiences and works of individuals who operate under a different set of foundational assumptions based instead on mutualism, cooperation, and forms of power that do not engage in zero-sum struggles. This dissertation will treat adversarialism not as an essential, inevitable, or preferable aspect of human nature, but rather as a culturally learned pattern of behavior that can be overcome, both individually and collectively. How would dominant theoretical frameworks in film studies be affected by a view of human nature that does not celebrate moments of conflict and adversarialism, but mutualistic tendencies instead? By mobilizing the definition provided by the Bahá’í discourse community (BDC) of “world citizenship” as a global ethic founded on the inherent oneness of humanity, this study will challenge three generally adversarial assumptions in the study of film: 1) That any filmmaker working within a non-democratic or “oppressive” state is politically worthy of celebration primarily when actively criticizing the politics of that state; 2) That any filmmaker with a complex multicultural background will have a psychologically difficult time reconciling their own cultural differences and reflect that internal struggle in their films; and 3) That conflict is an essential part of any popular cinematic narrative. Current approaches to filmmaking in an era of globalization, operating under normative adversarialism and often emphasizing the articulation of difference, are inadequate to explain the works of filmmakers living and working within a mutualistic ethic of world citizenship. By taking Dayyan Eng – a multicultural filmmaker based in Beijing, China – as the primary case study, I will develop a “world citizen” framework based on the articulation of the essential oneness of humanity and a filmmaker’s development of a “triple fluency” (cinematic, cultural, and industrial) to address limitations inherent in existing concepts in order to more appropriately illuminate the works of other media makers who work and live according to similar conceptual frameworks.

In this dissertation, we present a study of WZ production in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data analyzed was collected by the ATLAS detector and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of \(4.6 fb^{−1}\) provided by the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. We select WZ events in the fully leptonic decay mode with electrons, muons, and missing transverse energy in the final state. Events are required to have three isolated leptons with significant transverse momentum, a large missing transverse energy, a Z candidate reconstructed from two of the selected leptons, and a W candidate reconstructed from the missing transverse energy and third lepton. The major backgrounds to the WZ signal in the leptonic decay channel are Z+jets events, ZZ production, Z+photon events, and events with top quarks. We estimate the Z+jets and top quark background contributions from data and take the expected contribution for the other background processes from simulation. We observe 317 WZ candidates in data, with a background expectation of \(68\pm10\) events. The total production cross section is extracted from the selected sample using a maximum likelihood method and is determined to be \(19.0^{+1.4}_{-1.3} (stat) \pm0.9 (syst) \pm0.4 (lumi) pb\), which is consistent with the next-to-leading Standard Model prediction of \(17.6^{+1.1}_{-1.0} pb\). WZ production in the Standard Model includes a contribution from the WWZ triple gauge boson vertex. If new physics beyond the Standard Model exists and interacts with W and Z bosons, the coupling of the WWZ vertex could differ from the Standard Model prediction. We set limits on anomalous triple gauge boson couplings using the transverse momentum spectrum of Z bosons in the selected sample. We derive the 95% confidence interval for three model-independent anomalous triple gauge couplings using a frequentist approach and set the most stringent bounds to date on two of the three parameters. / Physics

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is the logical data model of the Semantic Web. RDF encodes information as a directed graph using a set of labeled edges known formally as resource-property-value statements or, in common usage, as RDF triples or simply triples. Values recorded in RDF triple form are either Universal Resource Identifiers (URIs) or literals. The use of URIs allows links between distributed data sources, which enables a logical model of data as a graph spanning the Internet. SPARQL is a standard SQL-like query language on RDF triples. This report describes the translation of SPARQL queries to equivalent SQL queries operating on a relational representation of RDF triples, and the physical optimization of that representation using the IBM DB2 relational database management system. Performance was evaluated using the Berlin SPARQL Benchmark. The results show that the implementation can perform well on certain queries, but more work is required to improved overall performance and scalability. / text

Organic and inorganic/organic hybrid material development is essential for the advancement of electronic devices, such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) and fuel cells. These materials are superior to their inorganic counterparts due to the ability to create flexible devices that can be produced on a large scale and at relatively low cost. First, electron-transport materials (n-type semiconductors) are severely lacking for the development of sufficient OTFTs. Metal-interrupted perylene analogues have been developed, in part, to take advantage of the ability to tune the electronic properties of these complexes by simply changing the metal center. Second, fluorescent molecules play an essential role in expansion of microscale sensor systems and OLEDs. Solvent dependent triple fluorescence has been discovered for a series of isobutylnaphthalimide derivatives, which is unique for naphthalimide materials which typically demonstrate dual fluorescence. Next, oxygen reduction electrocatalysts in fuel cells have hindered commercialization due to the high price of platinum. Here, polymer-containing palladium nanoparticles utilize the metal center embedded directly in the polymer backbone to serve as a seed point for metal nanoparticle growth. The palladium nanoparticles within the polymer matrix display significant catalytic activity towards oxygen reduction. Also, poly-9,9-dioctylfluorene is at the forefront of blue-light emitting materials for OLEDs due to high quantum efficiencies and good thermal stability; however, a low-energy green band emission contaminant in devices has hindered application. Oligofluorene synthesis to understand this phenomenon can be difficult thus a boronic acid protection has been implemented before Suzuki-Miyaura coupling occurs to reduce the number of byproducts produced and to accomplish synthesis of oligofluorenes such as a pentamer and heptamer. Lastly, while deviating from organic and inorganic/organic electronic materials, a discussion on the development of a mononuclear Rh(II) complexes, specifically a piano-stool conformation which assists in isolation of this species. The piano-stool ligand structure consists of alkyl chains for easy conformational adjustments when the Rh(I) metal center undergoes oxidation, bulky phosphine groups and an electron-donating arene ring to keep the Rh(II) metal center from dimerization. Most importantly, the research conducted has strived toward advancements over a broad range of scientific investigation. / text

Inledning: De senaste åren har det blivit allt viktigare för företagen att ta mer ansvar och att vara mer genomsynliga för alla intressenter. För att vara mer transparent kan företagen upprätta en speciell hållbarhetsredovisning som består av tre delar; miljö, socialt ansvar samt finansiell rapportering. De flesta av de stora och mest välkända företagen i Sverige har påbörjat någon form av hållbarhetsarbete. Det vanligaste ramverket med riktlinjer är i idag GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). Syfte: Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka om hållbarhetsredovisningar upprättade av företag som är anslutna till GRI är av bättre kvalitet än andra hållbarhetsredovisningar som är upprättade av företag som inte är anslutna till GRI, samt hur väl riktlinjerna följs av de anslutna företagen. Metod: I den här studien används en kvantitativ metod för att få en bred studie där generella samband kan hittas. Den data som används är sekundärdata i form av årsredovisningar och hållbarhetsredovisningar. Analysen sker med hjälp av beskrivande statistik, konfidensintervall samt Spearman’s rho. Resultat: Studien kom fram till att de företag som är anslutna till GRI generellt sett upprättar hållbarhetsredovisningar av bättre kvalitet än de företag som inte är anslutna till GRI. Det varierar dock kraftigt i vilken utsträckning de anslutna företagen följer GRI:s riktlinjer. Några av de anslutna företagen redovisar mycket bra men flera av de anslutna företagen redovisar väldigt dåligt. Studien av företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar delades in i tre olika delar. Det visade sig då att de GRI anslutna företagen inte redovisar bättre på alla delar, utan de ekonomiska rapporterna redovisades bättre av de företag som inte är anslutna till GRI. Det sociala och miljömässiga ansvaret redovisades bättre av de GRI anslutna företagen. Undersökningen visade också att det finns ett samband mellan dels företagens storlek och hållbarhetsredovisningens kvalitet och dels även antal sidor som hållbarhetsredovisningen omfattar gentemot hållbarhetsredovisningens kvalitet.

Uppsatsens titel: CSR I SMEs – En förklaring av motiv och effekter Seminariedatum: 2012-05-31Kurs: 4FE03E Examensarbete för civilekonomprogrammet 30hp Författare: Alexandra Edström och Anna PerssonHandledare: Elin Funck Examinator: Lars-Göran Aidemark Nyckelord: CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, samhällsansvar, intressenter,SMEs, Triple Bottom Line, motiv, effekter Bakgrund och problem: Teorierna kring CSR i SMEs är få och ofta motsägelsefulla. SMEs har dessutom en viktig påverkan på vårt samhälle, då de utgör den störstadelen av Sveriges näringsliv. CSR är ingen genväg till framgång utan effekterna kanbedömas först efter ett långsiktigt perspektiv, enligt Europakommissionen (2007)arbetar SMEs ofta med CSR utan att veta om det eller benämna det vid namn.Syfte: Syftet med detta examensarbete är att beskriva innebörden av CSR samtförklara motiven till och effekterna av CSR i SMEs. Metod: Vi har gjort en flerfallstudie på företagen Gnosjö Automatsvarvning AB,HangOn AB, Swede-Wheel AB och Sibes Metall AB. Vi har genomfört tvåsemistrukturerade intervjuer med två personer på respektive företag samt enfokuserad telefonintervju med respektive VD på varje företag. Examensarbetetbygger på abduktion som forskningsansats och av förklarande karaktär. Teoretisk referensram: Den teoretiska referensramen behandlar vedertagna teorierkring CSR, dess innebörd och historiska utveckling. Vi har kartlagt tidigare gjordastudier för att undersöka motiven till och effekterna av CSR i SMEs. Vidare har viredogjort för intressentteorin och legitimitetsteorin då dessa påverkar företags CSR. Resultat och slutsats: Vi har kunnat konstatera att CSR i SMEs gärna får varaomfattande och kostsamt så länge ansträngningarna gäller den lokala bygden.Det främsta motivet i SMEs utgörs av ledningens personliga värderingar och detmest framstående effekterna består av personlig stolthet och ökad ekonomisklönsamhet på sikt.

This thesis employed qualitative methods including grounded theory to assess how successful ecopreneurs communicate to maintain and sustain their triple bottom line organizations. The analysis of transcribed interviews from 13 exemplars in North America revealed five groups of common attributes that form an overarching theme of authentic identity. This finding confirms the Communication Theory of Identity and furthers it because it is through authentic identity that successful ecopreneurs manage to narrow identity gaps across the four layers of identity: they continuously strive for alignment with themselves, in relationships, among and across stakeholder groups, and in their daily execution. Understanding ecopreneurs and their practices, distilling recommendations, and adding to the scarce body of academic literature on ecopreneurship, are critical because ecopreneurship, in light of the alarming economic and environmental outlook, is establishing itself as a considerable area of business activity and influence for social change and a sustainable future.

This qualitative multiple-case study examined the pedagogical role that performance arts training played in the emergence of students’ mature artistic identities. As one of many instructors in the musical theatre program of a post-secondary college, the author fulfilled both the roles of researcher and studio music teacher. Multiple learning contexts were observed for eight first-year students; these contexts included the regimens in various artistic classrooms and in the vocal studio. The data comprised field observations from studio and classroom settings, individual interviews with eight students from the vocal studio, and audio recordings from their studio sessions. Data analysis revealed that the students’ construction of identity was positively impacted by: the “triple-threat” program components, the unique dyad relationship between the vocal studio teacher and her students, and the rigorous, professional training the students underwent. A study of the interactions amongst the disciplines of music, dance, and drama exhibited several implications in relation to the students’ acute identity experiences. Recommendations for improved musical theatre curricula centred on improved integration of the three disciplines, enhanced studio time, and greater skill development in the studio. Suggestions for future research in performance arts education were also offered. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-08-12 23:23:52.131

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