The Lincoln Elementary School needs assessment surveyed students in the third through fifth grades and their parents in order to identify strengths and concerns in their school and community. It also investigated whether or not participants considered family counseling skills as a concern or a strength. The results showed that the concerns and strengths identified by participants fell into three categories: family, community, and school. Parents' primary concern was children watching TV, while children's primary concern was getting enough sleep. Group differences were identified by ethnicity, gender, and marital status. These differences included English/Spanish skills, children showing respect for authority, and Accelerated Reader Program. Family counseling services was not identified as a concern or strength. However, results indicate that schools are a promising arena for marriage and family therapists to offer their skills in providing needed services.

Significant levels of interest and organisational spending on information and communication technologies (ICT's) have triggered debate as to whether these investments are worthwhile. While there has been some acknowledgement that investments result in positive returns, little is known about how ICT's may lead to competitive advantage. This thesis starts to inform this gap, by investigating how ICT's are combined with other organisational resources in the context of an exemplar organisation. The resource based view (RBV) is used as a framework to guide this study. The RBV is an appropriate lens to guide this research due to its focus on resources and capabilities as sources of advantage. This research employs an interpretive case study design based in an organisation with a long history of innovation and success with regard to ICT's. A grounded integrated model of advantage is presented based on two distinct groupings of integrated capabilities: lifecycle and embedded foundational capabilities. The integrated model of advantage, along with key actions outlined to support such capabilities, provides researchers and practitioners with a new way of understanding ICT based advantages. In essence, this research demonstrates how the total ownership of ICT's, within the case studied, presents a potential advantage. The advantage is realised through the combination of capabilities and the inclusive approach to ICT development employed in the case organisation. The research finds support from propositions of the RBV, in that the model demonstrates sources of advantage are based on organisational capabilities which are valuable, firm specific, and socially complex. As such, the integration of capabilities evident in the integrated model of advantage is a likely source of sustained competitive advantage. This means advantages gained from the integration of capabilities are not easily imitated or competed away. Furthermore, advantages have an even greater potential to be a source of sustained advantage than any single resource or capability. The research has important implications for theory and practice. While many individual sources of advantage have been empirically examined, this research provides one of the first in-depth case studies which identify integrated capabilities. Understanding such sources of advantage will help practitioners better understand and protect key organisational capabilities to sustain or extend competitive advantages.

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<p>Date: 2008‐05‐26</p><p>Program: International Marketing Course: Master Thesis</p><p>Authors: Qian Chen & Lanjunzi Chen</p><p>Title: What is wrong with Motorola?</p><p>Problem: What are the shortcomings of its mobile phones of Motorola from</p><p>consumers’ perspectives in Chinese market?</p><p>Purpose: This study aims to find out different factors of Motorola’s mobile phone</p><p>which may hamper consumers’ interest and possibility of purchasing when Motorola</p><p>experience the declining sales of mobile phone in Chinese market.</p><p>Method: The researchers apply marketing mix to investigate the shortcoming of</p><p>Motorola’s handset to achieve the research purpose. The researchers choose</p><p>questionnaires and interviews to collect information from consumers in order to</p><p>gather information for this research.</p><p>Target Group: This paper might be useful for Motorola Company to find their</p><p>problems and some companies also produce cellphone avoid coming out similar</p><p>problems.</p><p>Conclusions: Based on our research Motorola’s handsets certainly have many</p><p>shortcomings in marketing mix that is product, price, place and promotion from</p><p>consumers’ point view</p><p>Recommendations: There are a lot of aspects for Motorola to improve from product,</p><p>price, place and promotion in the long run in order to recover its reputation in</p><p>consumers’ mind.</p><p>Key Words: Motorola handset, consumers’ point of view, shortcomings, China,</p><p>product, price, place, promotion</p>

<p>Tidigare forskning har visat att förmågan att läsa och skriva påverkar både människans kognitiva tänkande och neurologiska strukturer. Likaså innebär oförmågan att läsa och skriva en social press som påverkar vår syn på oss själva. Men hur påverkas vår själv- och framtidssyn av att vi lär oss att läsa och skriva? Detta har undersökts genom intervjuer med 14 kvinnor i Nepal med olika erfarenheter av att läsa och skriva. Resultatet visade huvudsakligen att kvinnorna såg sig själva som mer självständiga och självsäkra, och sin framtid som mer ljus efter att de lärt sig att läsa och skriva. Slutligen har studiens reliabilitet och förslag på fortsatta studier diskuterats.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

<p>This thesis investigates how disparity estimation may be used to visualize an object on a 3D-screen. The first part looks into different methods of disparity estimation, and the second part examines different ways to visualize an object from one or several stereo pairs and a disparity map. Input to the system is one or several stereo pairs, and output is a sequence of images of the input scene but from more angles. This sequence of images can be shown on Setred AB's 3D-screen. The system has high real time demands and the goal is to do the disparity estimation and visualization in real time.</p><p>In the first part of the thesis, three different ways to calculate disparity maps are implemented and compared. The three methods are correlation-based, local structure-based and phase-based techniques. The correlation-based methods cannot satisfy the real-time demands due to the large number of 2D-convolutions required per pixel. The local structure-based methods have too much noise and cannot satisfy the quality requirements. Therefore, the best method by far is the phase-based method. This method has been implemented in Matlab and C and comparisons between the different implementations are presented.</p><p>The quality of the disparity maps is satisfying, but the real-time demands cannot yet be fulfilled. The future work is therefore to optimize the C code and move some functions to a GPU, because a GPU can perform calculations in parallel with the CPU. Another reason is that many of the calculations are related to resizing and warping, which are well-suited to implementation on a GPU.</p>

<p>Small and medium enterprises play an important role in the development of a country. </p><p>The growth of SMEs is also important for the world economy which has been widely </p><p>discussed in recent years. Although the growth of small firm is a well known topic in </p><p>theoretical research, still there are some research gaps that need to be filled. There is </p><p>no single multidimensional theory which would embrace all possible approaches; </p><p>most studies on SMEs’ growth examine the growth factors one by one. (Wasilczuk, </p><p>2000) Nor is there any single theory that can adequately explain small business </p><p>growth due to the heterogeneity of SMEs. Moreover, growth itself is difficult to </p><p>measure, and can be measured either objectively or subjectively. (Delmar, 1996) </p><p>Therefore, this study incorporates the resource-based view, as well as the </p><p>consideration of SMEs’ fives stages model to examine the growth factor of SMEs. </p><p>The resource-based view provides a unified approach in the conceptualization of the </p><p>resource analysis in the small firm. The five stages model shows the position of SMEs </p><p>current growth stage. By analyzing SMEs’ key resources (tangible and intangible </p><p>resources), indentifying their growth stages, SMEs can find out the critical resources </p><p>which influence their business growth. </p><p>As a conclusion, the study finds that each resource has its importance in different </p><p>stages. Tangible resources, such as cash and physical resources are critical in the </p><p>start-up firms, while intangible resources are prioritized in the success and resource </p><p>maturity stages. In order to gain the competitive advantages, SMEs should fully </p><p>develop the unique and inimitable resources such as the brand, technology, culture </p><p>and reputations.</p>

<p>De senaste åren har det börjat dyka upp system för att köra virtuella skrivbordsdatorer. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) är ett koncept för just det, och ett av de system som finns på marknaden är utvecklat av VMware och har fått namnet View. Frågeställningen som har legat till grund för denna utredning var om prestandan och användarupplevelsen hos en virtuell maskin i ett VDI-system idag är tillräckligt bra för att kunna ersätta en fysisk dator som arbetsdator. För att utreda detta skapades en View-miljö med två olika virtuella maskiner som sedan användes och utvärderades. Därtill användes även prestandatestmjukvaran PassMark PerformanceTest för att utvärdera datorernas prestanda och för att kunna jämföra resultaten med de hos två vanliga laptops. Resultatet av utredningen blev att de virtuella maskiner som skapades inte är tillräckligt bra att arbeta med för att idag kunna ersätta fysiska arbetsdatorer fullt ut, men att det finns användning för dem inom begränsade områden och att framtiden för teknologin är ljus.</p>

<p>”Livsfrågor är något man måste äga in i märgen”- en kvalitativ studie av två olika skolor om pedagogers syn på sitt bemötande och arbete med barns livsfrågorStudiens syfte var att undersöka pedagogers syn på sitt bemötande och arbete med barns livsfrågor. Även att undersöka vilken roll pedagogerna anser sig ha i arbetet med barns livsfrågor och vilket förhållningssätt pedagogerna anser sig ha då barns bakgrunder ser olika ut. Den kvalitativa intervjumetoden har använts, då målet var att få en nyanserad bild av pedagogers olika arbeten med barns livsfrågor. Intervjuerna har skett på två olika skolor där den ena skolan har en majoritet med elever med svensk bakgrund medan den andra skolan har en majoritet med elever från skilda kulturer. Två pedagoger från varje skola har varit med i studien. Rektorerna på båda skolorna har även intervjuats för att få deras syn på pedagogernas arbete med barns livsfrågor. Resultatet visar att pedagogerna anser sig ha en betydelsefull roll i arbetet med barns livsfrågor. Genom att lyssna och vara lyhörd inför eleverna blir allas tankar betydelsefulla. Den problematik som framkom i studien var att då elevers kulturer skiljer sig åt kan det vara svårt som pedagog att finna ett förhållningssätt där alla blir sedda. Det är av stor betydelse att lyfta barns olikheter för att finna en förståelse för varandra. Skolan är inte bara en plats för lärande av ämnen utan en plats med lärande för livet, då arbetet och bemötandet av barns livsfrågor har en stor roll. Pedagogerna saknade teoretisk kunskap från lärarutbildningen gällande barns livsfrågor men genom erfarenhet utvecklas man som pedagog inom ämnet. Studien visar att man önskat mer utbildning.</p> / <p>“Vital questions are something one has to possess in the marrow according to”- a qualitative study of the pedagogue’s opinion on their behavior and work with children´s vital questions in two different schools. The aim of the study was to investigate the point of view of the pedagogues in their work with children´s vital questions. Also to investigate which role the pedagogues believe they have in working with the vital questions of children and which behavior the pedagogues consider they have when the children’s backgrounds look different. The qualitative method of the interview has been used because the aim was to get a verified picture of the pedagogues´ different work with children´s vital questions. The interviews have been taken place in two different schools, where one school has a majority of children with a Swedish background, while the other one has a majority of pupils from various cultures. Two pedagogues from each school have taken part in the study. The headmasters from both schools have also been interviewed in order to get their point of view on the pedagogues´ work with children´s vital questions.The result shows that the pedagogues think that they have an important role in working with vital questions of the children. Through listening and having sensitive ears in the presence of the pupils will all thoughts be important. The problems which came out in the study were because of the difference in cultures it can be difficult as a pedagogue to find a method where all can be seen. The school is not only a place in order to learn subjects. It is a place with learning for life, because the work and meeting of children´s vital questions have a great role. The pedagogues have no theoretical knowledge from the education of teachers according to children´s vital questions but through experience one develops as a pedagogue within the subject. The study shows that they wish much more education.</p>

In this dissertation, we first derive exact reconstuction algorithms for thermoacoustic tomography (TAT) and broadband diffraction tomography (a linearized inverse scattering problem) using derived time-reversal formulas. Then we focus on some important practical problems of TAT including the limited-view problem, the effects of acoustic heterogeneity, and fast reconstruction algorithms. In Chapter II, we propose time-reversal methods and apply them to tomography with diffrating sources. We first develop time-domain methods to time-reverse a transient scalar wave using only the field measured on an arbitrary closed surface enclosing the initial sources. Under certain conditions, a time-reversed field can be obtained with the delay-and-sum algorithm (backprojection to spheres) used in synthetic aperture imaging.Consequently, the physicalmeaningandthe validconditions of this widely used algorithm are revealed quantitatively for the first time from basic physics. Then exact reconstruction for TAT and broadband diffraction tomography is proposed by time-reversing the measured field back to the time when each source or secondary source is excited. The theoretical conclusions are supported by a numerical simulation ofthree-dimensional diffraction tomography.The extension ofour time-reversal methods to the case using Green function in a heterogeneous medium is also discussed. In Chapter III, the limited-view problem is studied for TAT. We define a "detection region," within which all points have sufficient detection views. It is explained analytically and shown numerically that the boundaries of any object inside this region can be recovered stably.Otherwise some sharp details become blurred.One can identify in advance the parts of the boundaries that will be affected if the detection view is insufficient. Computations are conducted for both numerically simulated and experimental data. The reconstructions confirm our theoretical predictions. In Chapter IV, the effects of wavefront distortions induced by acoustic heterogeneities in breast TAT are studied. Amplitude distortions are shown to be insignificant for different scales of acoustic heterogeneities. After that we consider the effects of phase distortions (errors in time-of-flight) in our numerical studies. The numerical results on the spreads of point sources and boundaries caused by the phase distortions are in good agreement with the proposed formula. We also demonstrate that the blurring of images can be compensated for by using the distribution of acoustic velocityin the tissues in the reconstructions. In Chapter V, we discuss exact and fast Fourier-domain reconstruction algorithms for TAT in planar and circular configurations.