Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Male friends'

This study explores the peer group understandings of five male friends between the ages of six and eight years and seeks to examine the ways in which the group’s social dynamics interact to define, regulate and maintain dominant and collective understandings of masculinities. Within a self-selected affinity context, and drawing on their lived and imagined experiences, the boys’ enact and interpret their social worlds. Adopting the principles of ethnography within a framework of feminist poststructuralism and drawing on theories of ‘groupness’ and gender(ed) embodiment, the boys’ understandings of masculinities are captured and interpreted. The key analytic foci are directed towards examining the role of power in the social production of collective schoolboy knowledges, and understanding the processes through which boys subjectify and are subjectified, through social but also bodily discourses. The boys’ constructions of peer group masculinities are (re)presented through a narrative methodology which foregrounds my interpretation of the group’s personal and social relevances and seeks to be inductive in ways that ‘bring to life’ the boys’ stories. The study illuminates the potency of peer culture in shaping and regulating the boys’ dominant understandings of masculinity. Within this culture strong essentialist and hierarchical values are imported to support a range of gender(ed) and sexual dualisms. Here patriarchal adult culture is regularly mimicked and distorted. Underpinned by constructions of ‘femininity’ as the negative ‘other’, dominant masculinities are embodied, cultivated and championed through physical dominance, physical risk, aggression and violence. Through feminist poststructural analysis which enables a theorising of the boys’ subjectivities as fluid, tenuous and often characterised by contradiction and resistance, there exists a potential for interrupting and re-working particular masculinities. Within this framework, more affirmative but equally legitimate understandings and embodiments can be explored. The study presents a warrant for working with early childhood affinity groups to disrupt and contest the dominance and hierarchy of peer culture in an effort to counter-act broader gendered and heterosexist global, state and institutional structures. Framing these assertions is an understanding of the peer context as not only self-limiting and productive of hierarchies, but enabling and generative of affirmative subjectivities.

Who are our friends and what is the nature of networks we make, can have macro-level implications on society. There are relationship-based economies, and there are economies that rely on arm’s length interactions. This thesis studies how relationship-based groups like merchant guilds and caste can persist due to a lack of incentives and information, or because of salience of social identities. It also explores the factors that can widen the social circle and give rise to impersonal and cosmopolitan social systems. In the second chapter, I develop a theoretical model to show how difficult it is for relationship-based economies to be honest to and trusting of strangers and to transition into impersonal economies. I find a narrow set of conditions under which generalized trust in strangers can emerge and sustain in an impersonal economy. In the third chapter, I explore the transition of guild-based economies of Northwestern Europe into market-based economies in the sixteenth century. I study the unique interaction of economic and technological factors that drove such a change. I find that cities in the sixteenth century, where monopolies of merchant guilds declined, were at the Atlantic coast and had significantly higher levels of printing in the fifteenth century. In the fourth chapter, with Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales, I examine the effect of caste censuses of 1901 in making the caste identity salient today. We study its impact on networking and governance and find that in regions where district committees were formed to rank network in 1901, households have a smaller social circle as they have fewer out-of-caste networks with professionals. They also have a poorer quality of government. Overall, the thesis develops a detailed picture of how social structures historically evolve, and how trust, access to information and social identity are the forces that shape them.

With the internet's rampage, the possibilities for consumer-driven distribution of information are massive. One way to use this inter-consumer approach is to encourage existing customers, or ambassadors, to invite their friends and family to become a part of the brands success. But how can companies motivate existing customers to play a more important role in the brand expansion? The purpose of this thesis is to explore the motives and triggers for existing customers to invite friends, to become new customers. This by combining the empirical data collected from telephone interviews and web surveys, with theories on brand equity and inter-consumer marketing. To delimit the thesis, only motives connected to the marketing of premium products with a high customer involvement have been analyzed. For this purpose, Mackmyra Svensk Whisky AB was chosen. The empirical delimitation of this thesis is thus the customers of Mackmyra. The results showed that the motives that are perceived motivational differ from person to person. The incentives identified as more prevalent than others were access to unique products, priority to limited editions, possibility to experience the company from the inside, invitations to exclusive events, price reductions and points to exchange for merchandise.The identified incentives were segmented. After the segmentation, every company should carefully consider which segments to target, as those best suited for incentive programs differs from case to case.

The great success of the advertising industry in the 1950s created a diamond culture where diamonds are continuously associated with images of love and devotion. With all of the diamond's positive associations, no one could have imagined that such a precious jewel could have negative connotations. Yet in the 1990s, the label "blood diamond" emerged and became widely correlated with torture, rape, child labor, and environmental destruction. My three- manuscript dissertation covers the following topics: how diamond jewelry has become ingrained in American consumer culture, how lab-made diamond substitutes create new politics, and how diamonds created from ashes complicate consumers' relationship with diamond jewelry. These three manuscripts cover a series of interconnected ideas about symbolism and imagery of the diamond. In the first manuscript I present a history of how advertisements have influenced American consumer culture. The second manuscript elaborates on the themes established in the first manuscript by examining the political nature of lab-made diamonds in relation to American consumer culture. And finally, in the third manuscript the images presented in the first manuscript become even more complicated when the end product is literally made from ashes. Lab-made diamonds challenge traditional images of natural stones in a way that forces consumers to confront, and perhaps revise, the way they think about diamonds.
Ph. D.

Social network development has been studied in the social sciences for the last several decades, but little work has applied social network theory to study-abroad research. This study seeks to quantitatively describe factors that predict social network formation among study-abroad students while in the host countries. Social networks were measured in terms of the number of friends the students made, the number of distinct social groups reported, and the number of friends within those groups. The Study Abroad Social Interaction Questionnaire was compared against these pre-trip factors: intercultural competence, target-language proficiency, prior missionary experience, gender, study-abroad program, neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, openness to new experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Results showed that pre-trip oral proficiency in the target language was the strongest predictor of the number of friends made in-country. Certain programs showed stronger predictive statistics in terms of size of largest social group, number of social groups, and number of friends made. A distinction is made between total number of friends and number of friends who are more likely to be native speakers. Neither intercultural competence nor personality showed a significant correlation with the number of friendships made during study abroad.

Master of Science
Department of Journalism and Mass Communications
Todd F. Simon
This paper explores queer self-presentation on the social network site, Facebook, emphasizing gendered functionality, gender and queer politics and presentations of gendered identities. It provides a review of early critical cyberculture studies, identity performance and queer theoretical considerations. This study is based on hermeneutic analysis of public profile information and transformative changes of Facebook users as well as in-depth interviews of two queer Facebook users. Results indicate that queer users are always-already gendered, even in the seemingly liberal environment of a social network site, but some, aware of the restrictive structures of Facebook, manipulate presentation to negotiate adequate gender performance. With specific attention to heteronormative structures, this paper challenges former claims of the potential for social progress inherent in social network sites and calls for changes within.

Objective: Current research suggests there are many individuals with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) who desire friendships with their peers. However they are unable to engage in such relationships because they often lack the social skills required. Peer rejection and a paucity of childhood friendships in those with ASC has been linked to negative longer term outcomes such as depression and anxiety. Over the last decade there has been· an emerging body of qualitative research which has elicited a small number of instances where individuals with ASC have formed long lasting and stable friendships with their peers. At present the current qualitative literature appears incomplete and often hampered by methodological constraints inherent with the social difficulties which characterise those with ASC. The objective of this study was to increase our understanding of how young people with ASC experience and understand their friendships and how these relationships have developed throughout their lives. Design: This study adopted a semi-structured interview design comprising two thirty minute interviews. Interview data was transcribed and analyzed using the qualitative methodology of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Participants: Ten boys aged between ten and fifteen years took part in the study. All participants had a formal diagnosis of an ASC and attended the same specialist educational provision.

In the process of crushing concrete waste, significant amounts of fine by-products, the so called fine recycled concrete aggregates (FRCA), are generated and excluded from potential use. Limited research has thoroughly investigated the performance of concrete mixes with FRCA, very likely due to the complexity in analysing non-negligible amounts of adhered residual cement paste (RCP). Although some studies have proposed promising sustainable mix-design procedures accounting for the different microstructure when using coarse recycled concrete aggregates (CRCA), no similar approach exists for FRCA concrete. In this work, two promising procedures for mix-designing eco-efficient concrete with 100% FRCA are proposed accounting for the presence of RCP to reduce cement content in new mixtures. First, built on top of the existing procedure for CRCA mix-design, modifications to the Equivalent Volume (EV) method were introduced toconsider full replacement of fine natural sand by FRCA. Second, based on the concept of continuous Particle Packing Models (PPM), an optimized procedure was proposed to allow maximum packing density of FRCA mix linked to a given level of measured RCP content. Results verified the feasibility of producing eco-efficient concrete mixes with 100% FRCA, emphasizing the PPM mixes to report superior rheological and mechanical performance along with suitable durability-related properties. Yet, results also indicated the influence of simple or multistage crushed FRCA on the overall performance of mixes.

Magister Public Health - MPH
The aim of this study was to describe the health seeking behaviours, knowledge about the available services, as well as experiences, and barriers to access and utilization of the reproductive health services among male adolescents in Lusaka. A descriptive, qualitative study was conducted among male adolescents in a peri-urban setting in Lusaka. Four focus group discussions were conducted with 46 adolescents aged between 13 and 24 years of age, and six key informant interviews. Data was audio-tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic content analysis was done. Health concerns were related to the social, psychological, societal and puberty needs of participants. Concerns, questions and queries about masturbation were common, especially among the younger adolescents. Most problems related to puberty and body changes rather than sexual and reproductive health matters per se. Knowledge about the available sexual and reproductive health services was generally low, with some young men being completely unaware of the existence of youth friendly services at the local clinic. Contrary to popular opinion, adolescents in this community reported that they did not seek help on sexual matters from friends and did not want to discuss their problems with their peers, due to fears of being marginalized. Perceived gender, cultural and social norms, lack of knowledge about the availability of adolescent reproductive health services, and poor attitudes among the health care providers were some of the identified barriers to seeking health care. Adolescents perceived health providers to be judgmental, not helpful and condescending towards young people. Lack of privacy and confidentiality were also reported as barriers to access and utilization of sexual and reproductive health services

Aquesta tesis fa referència a la necessitat social de la implementació de sensors electroquímics en la nostra vida quotidiana a diferents nivells. Des d’un enfocament sanitari, l’ús i l’aplicació real de plataformes fàcils d’utilitzar pel propi pacient facilitarien la presa de decisions gràcies a la obtenció d’informació rellevant i monitoratge d’una malaltia. Així mateix, l’ús d’aquestes eines de manera individual, en centres de salut o inclús hospitals, ajudarien a disminuir el cost que la sanitat ha d’afrontar diàriament. Des d’un enfocament diferent, aquest tipus de sensors poden oferir també altres tipus de aplicacions, poden ser usats amb finalitats mediambientals o de seguretat. La fabricació de sensors electroquímics (amperomètrics i potenciomètrics) integrats i impresos en diferents substrats fàcils de manipular, de baix cost i robustos (com tèxtils, globus o paper) ha estat aconseguida durant aquesta tesis. L’estudi del seu rendiment analític sota la influencia de diferents situacions d’estres i en diferents fluids biològics (detectant ions en suor o glucosa en sèrum i sang) també ha estat realitzat amb èxit. Aquestes aportacions tecnològiques van dirigides a superar els reptes que la societat d’avui en dia necessita solucionar: com pot ser la sostenibilitat del sistema sanitari en una població cada vegada mes envellida; el manteniment d’una seguretat i un estat del benestar; i el control mediambiental. Aquesta tesis suposa un avenç en aquest sentit i mostra diferents solucions científiques i eines útils per aquests reptes que la societat necessita afrontar.
Esta tesis hace referencia a la necesidad social de la implantación de sensores electroquímicos en nuestra vida diaria a distintos niveles. Desde un enfoque sanitario, el uso y la aplicación real de plataformas fáciles de usar mediante el propio paciente facilitarían la toma de decisiones gracias a la obtención de información relevante y monitoreo de una enfermedad. Así mismo, el uso de estas herramientas de manera individual, en centros de salud o incluso hospitales disminuiría el costo que la sanidad debe afrontar diariamente. Desde un enfoque diferente, este tipo de sensores pueden ofrecer también otro tipo de usos, pudiendo ser aplicados para fines medioambientales o de seguridad. La fabricación de sensores electroquímicos (amperométricos y potenciométricos) integrados e impresos en diferentes sustratos fáciles de manipular, de bajo costo y robustos (como textiles, globos o papel) ha sido lograda durante esta tesis. El estudio de su rendimiento analítico bajo diferentes situaciones de estrés y en diferentes fluidos biológicos (detectando iones en sudor o glucosa en suero y sangre) también ha sido realizado de manera exitosa. Estas aportaciones tecnológicas van dirigidas a superar los retos que la sociedad de hoy en día necesita solucionar: como puede ser la sostenibilidad del sistema sanitario en una población cada vez más envejecida; el mantenimiento de una seguridad y un bienestar general; y el control medioambiental. Esta tesis supone un avance en este sentido y muestra diferentes soluciones científicas y herramientas útiles para estos retos que la sociedad necesita afrontar.
This thesis refers to the social need of the implementation of electrochemical sensors in our daily life at different levels. From a sanitary point of view, the use and real application of user-friendly platforms by the patient itself would facilitate the decision-making process thanks to the obtaining of relevant information and monitoring of a disease. Besides, the use of these tools individually, in health centers or even hospitals, would reduce the cost that healthcare must pay on a daily basis. In a different approach, this type of sensors can also offer other types of applications, which can be applied for environmental or safety purposes. The manufacturing of electrochemical sensors (amperometric and potentiometric) integrated and embedded on different substrates easy to manipulate, low cost and robust (such as textiles, balloons or paper) has been achieved during this thesis. The study of their analytical performance under different mechanical stress and using different biological fluids (detecting ions in sweat or glucose in serum and blood) has also been carried out successfully. These technological contributions are aimed at overcoming the challenges that today's society needs to solve: such as the sustainability of the health system in an aging population; the maintenance of security and general wellbeing; and environmental control. This thesis contributes with huge advancements to face these issues and shows different scientific solutions and useful tools for these challenges that society needs to address. This thesis refers to the social need of the implementation of electrochemical sensors in our daily life at different levels. From a sanitary point of view, the use and real application of user-friendly platforms by the patient itself would facilitate the decision-making process thanks to the obtaining of relevant information and monitoring of a disease. Besides, the use of these tools individually, in health centers or even hospitals, would reduce the cost that healthcare must pay on a daily basis. In a different approach, this type of sensors can also offer other types of applications, which can be applied for environmental or safety purposes. The manufacturing of electrochemical sensors (amperometric and potentiometric) integrated and embedded on different substrates easy to manipulate, low cost and robust (such as textiles, balloons or paper) has been achieved during this thesis. The study of their analytical performance under different mechanical stress and using different biological fluids (detecting ions in sweat or glucose in serum and blood) has also been carried out successfully. These technological contributions are aimed at overcoming the challenges that today's society needs to solve: such as the sustainability of the health system in an aging population; the maintenance of security and general wellbeing; and environmental control. This thesis contributes with huge advancements to face these issues and shows different scientific solutions and useful tools for these challenges that society needs to address.

Latin erotic poetry is an important genre recording surviving examples of male friendship. This report argues that a specific group of poems involving the poet and his powerful friend should be identified and studied separately as a sub-genre. Drawing examples largely from Horace, Catullus and Propertius, I argue that homosocial erotic poetry exploits the same repertoire of generic conventions as erotic poetry, but reshapes some of them for different functions. To articulate the erotic emphasis and the generic concern of this report, Eve Sedgwick’s notion of “homosocial desire” (1985) is introduced. The concept of homosociality is useful in revealing how male desire in our sub-genre has an erotic tinge and functions to foster the social bond of male friendship, but precludes the homoerotic possibility. Chapter One introduces the important terms and methodology chosen for this study, while Chapters Two to Four define and describe three distinctive features of the sub-genre. Chapter Two is devoted to showing that sermo amatorius, the “love speech” often featured in romantic relationships, can be assimilable to the structure of male homosocial relations. Chapters Three and Four examine how the sub-genre reshapes the recusatio and the topos of wealth to negotiate the tension of desire between the poets and their powerful friends. Ultimately, this report argues that male homosocial desire motivates the sub-generic conventions and thereby the seemingly disparate poems constitute a coherent sub-generic classification.
text

Central to many theories of deviance and delinquency (differential association, social learning, and social bond) are peer and familial influences on deviant behavior. A conceptual framework that incorporated both peer and familial influence to address the role of cross-sex peers on female deviance was built based on a review of the literature. Using substance use as an indicator of deviance, the effects of having three forms of male associates (male friends, romantic partners, and sexual partners) on female substance use were examined. Focus was on the effects of different types of male peer relationships, how those effects differed from the effects of female peer relationships, and how parental control might be greater for girls with only female peers. The conceptual model incorporated three measures of parental control—parentally granted autonomy, parental presence at home, and time spent in shared activities with parents—that were used to test the effects of male associates on female substance use. Analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), one combined measure for male associates was regressed on female substance use while controlling for parental control measures to determine if the effects of male associates on female substance use were mediated by parental control. Results indicated that while each type of male associate increased the likelihood of female substance use, effects were stronger for romantic and sexual partners than for male friends. Female friends also increased the likelihood of substance use. While the effects of male friends did not significantly differ from the effects of female friends, the effects of romantic and sexual partners did. The effects of male associates were significant even with the inclusion of parental control measures. Though both relationships with male associates and parents significantly affected female substance use, results did not provide support for the conceptual model. With results providing greater support for theories of peer influence than parental influence, future research should continue to examine peer relationship influences on deviance, how these influences vary by type of association, and how gender effects peer influence processes.

碩士
國立政治大學
英國語文學系
106
This paper discusses the desire for male intimacy in Melville’s epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. Male intimacy is intense friendship, the desire for which partakes of spiritual and psychological aspects of homosexual desires but differs from them in that it is not sexual. As an indicative instance, the relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg is more appropriately called “male intimacy” than “the homosexual.” This paper argues that Clarel’s yearning for Celio and Vine is purely spiritual and that the Lyonese is not an object of desire for Clarel. This view is a challenge to many earlier critics’ belief that Clarel’s spiritual pursuit is tinged with eroticism. Their belief, as this paper will demonstrate, results from a limited reading of the poem. That is, they insist on some ambiguous statements without enough regard to the context. This paper attempts to read Clarel closely and comprehensively. It will resort to some external texts, such as Emerson’s writings, Hawthorne’s novels, and Melville’s correspondence, as well as his poem “After the Pleasure Party.” The body of this paper matches the structure of the poem: the four chapters correspond respectively to its four parts.

碩士
中華大學
工業管理學系碩士班
102
Due to information technology advances, the population of using smart mobile device currently reaches 49.5%. In other word, it means every one of two people holding smart mobile device. The major application of internet behavior is “using social network” (Institution for Information Industry, Foreseeing Innovation New Dig services, 2013) The research of child welfare league foundation shows that more than 95% of students have face book account and also 60% of students allows strangers to join as friends. In average, there are 31% of students have more than ten stranger friends. (child welfare league foundation, report on children and teenager’s behavior of using internet in 2012) However, the core competence and competence index of information education program, which is written in the revision of grade 1-9 curriculum of elementary and junior high school education in 2012, is being overpass on the issue about making friend through internet. A few scholars have been working on research about facebook, but most of the work are about fan page marketing, or the affection of facebook on interpersonal relations. There is lack of research on students making friends through facebook in addition to internet safety. Hence, this study conduct unified theory of acceptance and use of technology(UTAUT) to discuss the factor which influence the intention of students to use facebook making friends. Further, there will be an educational intervention to those students on the purpose to understand the effect whether if it reduces their behavioral intention. A survey from 295 copies of quesiotnaires is done which are answered by six grades students. It shows as follows, (1)Performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence has positive influence on behavioral intention, and performance expectancy is mostly effective. (2) Boys are emphasis on performance expectancy than girls. The infection effects have significant impacts between gender and social influence, experience and effort expectancy, effort expectancy and voluntariness of use.(3) The implementation of educational intervention is effective which decreases the intention of students to use facebook making friends however, after two monthes it increases again though the number still lower than before the educational intervention. The aim of this study is to evidence the importance of information safety curriculum so that education authority concern on internet safety of students.

Over the past few years, humans’ consumption patterns have increased in such a way that natural resources are being depleted and pollution of the environment continuously increases because of the way they are living. The textile and apparel industry is also a big contributor to numerous environmental problems as it is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Both the consumers as well as the textile and apparel industry have neglected the necessity of pro-environmental behaviour in recent years and therefore it has not yet become a familiar concept in terms of apparel acquisitions. This research study focuses on exploring and describing male consumers’ pro-environmental motivation and intent to acquire eco-friendly apparel in the South African market. The intention was to introduce empirical evidence that could contribute to addressing the factors that influence pro-environmental intent with regards to apparel in the South African context. Therefore the research hypotheses as well as the framework of the research study focus on the various components or constructs from the Norm-Activation Theory (NAT) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as influencing factors for acquiring eco-friendly apparel in a pro-environmental manner. The relevant concepts of the NAT (i.e. awareness of consequences, moral norms) together with all the applicable concepts related to the TPB (i.e. social norms, attitude, perceived behavioural control, and behavioural intent) were included into the conceptual framework for this research study. Perceived behavioural control in particular, was extended and separated into two sub-components, namely perceived self-efficacy and controllability. For this research study, the apparel acquisition methods included apparel acquisition limits as well as apparel acquisitions based on pro-environmental attributes. The research study was conducted in the Gauteng province with a sample of 305 male consumers. Male consumers were specifically selected as it has been found that pro-environmental behaviour seems to be less popular amongst male consumers. There also seems to be limited research regarding male apparel consumers and their apparel consumption behaviours in the South African context, contrary to female consumers and their apparel consumption behaviours. A quantitative research approach was used, with a cross-sectional survey design, for exploratory research purposes and respondents were reached by means of non-probability, convenience and snowball sampling methods. Respondents completed online as well as paper-based questionnaires that were developed according to the constructs and hypotheses of the research study. Lastly, the data was captured and coded by the researcher, and then analysed by statisticians of the University of Pretoria by making use of descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicated that the respondents seem to be quite aware of the consequences that the apparel industry and consumers have on the environment. It also appears to influence their overall behavioural intent quite significantly. However, it would seem that the male consumers that participated in this research study are not significantly influenced by their social and moral norms while making decisions regarding the process of acquiring eco-friendly apparel in a pro-environmental manner. The male consumers’ attitudes and self-efficacy regarding pro-environmental apparel behaviour contributed significantly to their pro-environmental intent. Controllability was not seen as a significant predictor and continued to be a challenging construct throughout the duration of this research study, with various obstacles that need to be further explained and/or explored in the future research.
Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
tm2015
Consumer Science
MConsumer Science
Unrestricted

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1993.
Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-92).

碩士
高雄醫學大學
高齡長期照護碩士學位學程
106
The study adopts in-depth interviews method of qualitative research. We interviewed 6 middle-aged gay males, at the age of from 40-53, by semi-structured interview outline, to explore their attitude toward long-term care service, inclusive of cognition, demand, and willingness of utilize. The research outcome showed as the following: 1. Because of contact experience of respondents, their attitudes to the long-term care service are different, and most of the respondents were not able to understand the information of long-term care services, and do not know much about its’ content. 2. Their demand of long-term care services includes physiological, psychological, social, spiritual, and others kinds of satisfaction. My study showed that respondents pay more attention to LGBTQ-friendly services than devices. The study found that the demand for long term care services between homosexuals and heterosexual people seems to be the same, but the details are different. In particular, their life experience and social situation of the two were completely different, and most homosexuals have no children for long-term care support. They are self-defended because of the lack of basic social security and the atmosphere of homophobia of the society. They therefore feel that their care service need will be rejected or procrastinating, and concealing their sexual orientation. The orientation. The results also suggest that public policymakers must understand that the elderly in different ethnic groups face various barriers to receiving health care and long-term care in our society. 3. Respondents feel that there is a need for long-term care services in the future, and those who help long-term care services in the future are friends and partners, especially friends, the research result showed that social support from significant others is a very important factor to quality of life for long-term care receiver. Respondents also felt that their willingness to use long-term care services was high. They preferred long service model was home-based services. The second choice was community-based services, and the third one was institutional Services residential services. 4. The factors affecting the long-term care service of the respondents were: contact experience, aging attitudes, economic capacity, LGBTQ-friendly structure, condition of health and information knowing.

In Canada, new parents have access to maternity and parental leave following the birth or adoption of a child. Parental leave, which follows maternity leave, entitles new parents to 35 weeks of leave. Although both parents have access to parental leave, only a small percentage of fathers utilize it, despite the benefits for both fathers and their children. This gendered usage perpetuates the belief that family responsibilities are mothers’ responsibilities. This multi-level research study explored the organizational, manager, and employee characteristics that influence support for and use of parental leave by male employees. In 2012, seven large, Manitoba employers were recruited for participation and the sample included 550 male employees and 354 female and male managers. Data were collected using a structured interview at the organizational level and two self-administered questionnaires for managers and male employees. The hypotheses were tested using OLS regression and hierarchical logistic regression. Results indicated strong managerial support for parental leave use by men, although female managers were significantly more supportive than male managers. The strongest influence on support for parental leave use for both employees and managers was the personal use of parental leave. Male employees who perceived organizational family support and the view that men could take leave without negative career impact reported higher levels of perceived supervisory family support. Twenty-five percent of the sample had used parental leave, but those who had access to an Employment Insurance top up from their employer reported the highest leave use and the longest leave duration. Parental leave was extended from 10 to 35 weeks in 2000; the results indicate that fathers who had access to 10 weeks of parental leave were 80 percent less likely to report leave use, compared to those with access to 35 weeks of leave. Therefore, to increase fathers’ use of parental leave, organizations are encouraged to increase awareness and explicit support for parental leave, as well as offer a top up. To increase fathers’ leave use, future parental leave policy development should focus on both increasing wage replacement and the addition of a non-transferable leave for fathers, similar to that offered in Quebec.

碩士
國立雲林科技大學
企業管理系
107
Nowadays, nonprofit organizations have had a hard time to survive, because of the increasing expenses, and the number of nonprofit organizations. In facing fierce competition, nonprofit organizations have begun to invest in social media marketing to increase marketing effectiveness and reduce costs. Facebook is the most endeared social media by nonprofit organizations to convey ideas and information of the organization, for its convenient and immediate two-way communication channel. Therefore, through experiments, this study is expected to make some suggestions for nonprofit organizations to increase the effectiveness of Facebook marketing. This study conducted two 2 x 2 factorial design experiments. Study One was aimed to explore the impact of the degree of tie strength between social endorsement influencer and adopter and the degree of personal involvement to the nonprofit organization Facebook advertisement on consumer behavioral intentions. The results of Study One are presented below: First, strong-tie had a significant effect on consumer behavioral intentions which is greater than weak tie. Second, high degree involvement had a significant effect on consumer behavioral intentions which is greater than low degree involvement. Study Two further explore the impact of the degree of tie strength between social endorsement influencer and adopter and the degree of social endorsement on a nonprofit organization Facebook advertisement on consumer behavioral intentions. The result was that high degree social endorsement had a significant effect on consumer behavioral intentions which is greater than low degree social endorsement.

碩士
南台科技大學
資訊傳播系
98
In the beginning of the 2008 year, the factory of sanitary pad found the reader of Queen’s blog were almost young successful fashion ladies between twenty to thirty years old, and the ladies could fit in with their products, then the factory cooperated with Queen’s blog. In one week, the Queen’s blog got out of three hundred thousands readers, and there are more than one hundred articles, too. Due to the content of Queen’s blog could conduce the sales of factory products, and then there were more and more factories want to cooperate with Queen’s blog. People tend to believe in the professionals and leaders because they represent knowledge and authority. As a result, net pals will support those so called “opinion leader” when they appear on Internet. When many bloggers obtain belief from net pals, the information provided in blogs play a very important role. Therefore, the bloggers would place products in their articles and net pals would reach these products information while they browse these blogs. The research questions of this essay are what is the factor that affects blog net pals’ purchase decision and what is the reason that the net pals accept purchasing products. This study is based on the EKB Model proposed by Engel, Blackwell and Kollat, with a special focus on information search, alternative evaluation, and purchase decision. We intend to find out what have affected consumers’ purchase decision from the two perspectives of “personal factors”、“involvement”、 “trust” and “affection.” This is done in order to explore the consumer behavior on the Internet, more specifically, on the blogs. This search suppose the independent variable is acceptability of purchase products, the dependent variable is purchase decision, and the moderating are “involvement”, “trust” and “affection.” From the structure of this search, there are some hypothesis as below : 1. It is positive related if the visitor ‘s psychological factor of Queen’s blog can accept purchase products. 2. The visitor ‘s demographic variables of Queen’s blog have effect on their acceptance for purchase products. 3. It is positive related if the visitor’s psychological factor of Queen’s blog have effect on their purchase decision. 4. The visitor ‘s demographic variables of Queen’s blog have effect on their purchase decision. 5. The visitor ‘s acceptance of Queen’s blog for purchase products article have effect on their purchase decision. The research methods are both quality research and quantity research. I tried to realize what’s the factory can effect the net friend’s purchase decision by a profound interview. From the data analysis of interview, I created my Questionnaire and proceeded online questionnaire. Finally, I got 1209 successful Questionnaires and found most of Queen blog’s visitor are women. They are between twenty six and thirty years old and their level of education about university and junior college. Between the relation of purchase products article and purchase decision, the conclusion is as below : (1) the net friend’s psychological factor for Queen’s blog can influence their purchase decision and acceptance about purchase products. (2) the net friend’s personal factor for Queen’s blog have influence on their purchase decision and acceptance about purchase products. (3) the net friend’s acceptance of Queen’s blog about purchase products article decide if they would buy the products. 關鍵字： Blog, purchase decision, purchase products, consumer behavior

碩士
嘉南藥理科技大學
環境工程與科學系
100
According to Annual Environment Statistics Report 2011 of Environment Protection Administration (EPA), the average amount of waste generated in Taiwan per day was 20,698 tons, among which the mean volume of leftover food (fruits and vegetables included) was 2,222 tons, taking 10.7%. Methods of food reclamation involves feeding pig、making feed、composting and anaerobic fermentation etc. Regarding all these solutions, composting benefits of lower requirements as well as easier operation and management; moreover, food waste richly organic, which are perfect for composting. Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation spread that using brown sugar mixed with fruits and vegetables which can be used as organic compost tea. However, its fermentation process and quality still lack of scientific analysis and verification. In this study, analysis by the kitchen waste fluid fertilizers forward material characteristics and the related changes in physical and chemical properties of the reaction process monitoring to explore the product of fertilizer efficiency with different feed ratio and temperature differences during the fermentation process. As the results showed, if fermentation temperature appeared to be too low, then multiple Product physical and chemical properties such as pH, total nitrogen, total phosphorus anhydride, potassium hydroxide did not reach Agriculture and Food Agency miscellaneous liquid fertilizer standards. Other than that, the quality of products contained both fruits and vegetables is better than those with fruits or vegetables alone. Due to the fact that compost tea pH are between 2.82~3.13, which is far lower than the standard of Miscellaneous organic liquid fertilizer, it is suggested to either take control of temperature or raise the environmental temperature, so the condition of fermentation incomplete can be avoided.

This study explores which concept of citizenship is typically promoted in ESL programs available to adult immigrants in Canada: citizenship as status, citizenship as identity, citizenship as a set of civic virtues or citizenship as agency. Is there a difference between the stated purpose of ESL programs, the integration and active participation of immigrants in Canadian society through language development, and the actual citizenship learning that occurs in these programs? What influences this? The study traces the historical link between citizenship education and ESL in Canada, and draws on existing research to reveal how citizenship concepts are presented in ESL classrooms. These findings are then matched with data from my textbook analysis, classroom observations and student interviews obtained from two advanced ESL courses offered by COSTI, as an indication of the citizenship learning and the citizenship concepts most likely to be promoted in ESL programs for adult immigrants across Canada.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
森林環境暨資源學研究所
103
With a rising environmental conscious, wastes reutilization schemes have become the mainstream of sustainable application of resources. This study investigates the feasibility of paper and paperboard products made by autoclaved treated municipal solid waste-derived fiber (MSWF), rice straw cellulosic ethanol fermentation waste (CEFW) and Tea waste (TW). MSW were steamed under 155oC for 60 minutes. CEFW were mixed with steamed MSW and old newspaper (ONP) with ratios of 100:0, 90:10, 80:20 and 50:50, various size of TW with ratios of 80:20 and 50:50. Feasibility of paper (60 g/m2) and paperboard (200 g/m2) production were investigated by analysing their tensile strengths, bursting strengths and tearing strengths. An environmental friendly from kraft black liquor derived binder (BLDB) was used to improve the physical properties of the paper and paperboard products. The values of these properties enhanced linearly with increasing average fiber lengths, regardless of the type of fiber used in the products. BLDB enhanced the physical properties by 50% for papers and 85% for paperboards, and compared with a commercial urea formaldehyde resin. Thermal pressing, however, did not improve the physical properties of the binder enhanced paper products. With the addition of the adhesive binder, CEFW and MSWF showed reasonable substitution potential for ONP fiber by providing suitable tensile and bursting strength in the paper and paperboard.