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This dissertation provides a coherent, synchronic, broad-coverage, generative phonology of Russian. I test the grammar empirically in a number of ways to determine its goodness of fit to Russian. In taking this approach, I aim to avoid making untested (or even incoherent) generalizations based on only a handful of examples. In most cases, the tests show that there are exceptions to the theory, but at least we know what the exceptions are, a baseline is set against which future theories can be measured, and in most cases the percentage of exceptional cases is reduced to below 5%. The principal theoretical outcomes of the work are as follows. First, I show that all of the phonological or morphophonological processes reviewed can be described by a grammar no more powerful than context-free. Secondly, I exploit probabilistic constraints in the syllable structure grammar to explain why constraints on word-marginal onsets and codas are weaker than on word-internal onsets and codas. I argue that the features [+/- initial] and [+/- final], and extraprosodicity, are unnecessary for this purpose.

This study examined the institutional advancement programs of successful American private/Catholic universities, two private universities in the United Sates, and two institutions in the Congo. Funding strategies constitute the backbone of advancement programs for successful American private universities/colleges. This study also investigated the funding mechanisms that successful private universities in the United States utilized to obtain philanthropic dollars. Further, the research assessed the roles of the successful private university presidents and trustees, and determined how public relations impacted the institutional advancement results of those institutions. Finally, the results of this investigation suggested practical applications for the Congolese/African universities. Grunig s Four Models of Public Relations (1992) provided the conceptual framework of this research. Grunig developed the assumption that excellent private organizations, such as private universities/colleges in the United States, utilized the two-way symmetric model of public relations/communication, which accounted for the advancement effectiveness of those institutions.

There is no doubt that electronic marketing has contributed positively in the life of modern societies, mainly the consuming societies. It allowed purchasing of materials cheaply without any limit, and without any restrictions. It also gave the chance to make a free selection and comparison between the prices of goods at the electronic department stores throughout the Internet. All such facilities are given to the consumers in a very short time without causing them to leave their office or home. In addition, the Electronic Marketing has exterminated the monopoly of goods and materials, all such acts of course are for the consumer's benefit.However, in addition to such advantages there are many disadvantages of such type of marketing; the Electronic Marketing has deleted the privacy of the consumer, because all of his movements through the Internet have been divulged and under control, in addition to lack of exclusive security through the Internet. Accordingly, many losses equally occurred to the customer and the merchant due to such acts of hackers who reveal the information and credit cards details.In addition, the Electronic Marketing caused many merchants, agents and monopolists to be vanquished because it gave the chance for direct communications between the producer and the consumer without passing through them; as such, many of such merchants have been yielded away from the way of this new technology.The Electronic Marketing was able to cause an upset down in many concepts and standards of economic science that have existed for so many years. Doors are still open for every new in this assumption and endless world as there are no limits that can stop such human ambition.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of clarifying students' misperceptions regarding their peers' consumption of alcohol and feelings of comfort in drinking situations. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to determine if providing students with information would impact on their perceptions. A posttest-only control-group experimental design was employed to investigate the efficacy of clarifying students' misperceptions. The experimental group was provided with information gleaned from the literature regarding students' misperceptions. Participants were administered a questionnaire developed for this study to determine: (a) their drinking habits (i. e., frequency and quantity), (b) how comfortable they feel in drinking situations, (c) their perceptions regarding their peers' drinking habits, and (d) their perceptions regarding how comfortable their peers feel in drinking situations.The findings included: (a) students overestimated the alcohol consumed by their peers; (b) students inaccurately believed that their peers are more comfortable in drinking situations than they are themselves; and (c) information appears to have clarified female students' misperceptions associated with feelings of comfort in drinking situations. A theory grounded in reality (Corbin

Recent national efforts to coordinate and promote higher education in the fire service led to this national survey of fire service degree programs. The main purpose of the study was to gather descriptive information concerning fire service degree programs offered at two-year and four-year accredited institutions. A second purpose of the study was to identify the perceptions fire service degree program coordinators/directors hold concerning current and future issues affecting their programs. The information collected as part of the study can be used in a variety of ways from benchmarking among fire service degree programs to assistance and support with policy formation at the local, state, and federal level. The purpose of the study was achieved as the data collected provides an in-depth snapshot of the current status of fire service degree programs in the United States. Data were collected in the following five areas: Degree Program Information, Student Information, Faculty Information, Distance Education Information, and Program Directors/Coordinators Perceptions.

The literary expression of Afro-Americans has been scrutinized and criticized in exhaustive detail, yet historically perceived by many American and English literary scholars are qualitatively andquantitatively underdeveloped. This was the view held by many literary scholars until the late 1960s when Afro-American literary scholars and black students argued forcefully and convincingly in favor of the plays,short stories, poetry and novels written by Afro-Americans. Despite such noteworthy efforts, however, few scholars have investigated the uneven and sporadic appearance of publications, or the absence of publications,by black writers in any comprehensive fashion. Thus, the dissertation examines the various extra-literary problems faced by Afro-American writers which have contributed to either many--or few--of their works emerging in print in any era.

The strategy team have technology ideas and frameworks that represent the best body of knowledge for creating real business value from technology, but only other teams not the strategy team can create the value, by broadly completing the strategy team s ideas. The delivery teams often ignore the ideas. Sometimes real conflict emerges. It feels like the other teams think differently in a deeply rooted way. Could differences in organisational culture be to blame?This dissertation examines the organisational culture perceived within BP's energy trading technology team known as Integrated Supply and Trading Digital Business (ISTDB). The focus is on the Strategy and Architecture team (S&A) who are responsible for assuring the long-term viability of technology delivered to the business by setting and enforcing technology standards with the technology delivery teams (Regional Businesses or RBs). S&A relies on influence and persuasion to build compliance with the standards as it does not have line management responsibility for the other teams.This research concludes the perception of organisational culture is different between S&A and the RBs, and that it is a cause of conflict. The research also identifies that perceived organisational culture in ISTDB technology team as a whole is non-cohesive and not well aligned with the BP business strategy.This is a suboptimal arrangement for value creation. The author recommends both short-term and long-term shifts in working practices to correct this imbalance. The changes include a new emphasis on communications, new personnel hiring procedures and cross-cultural awareness training.

This research of corporate strategy analysis implements comparative analysis and benchmarking to analyse and examine the corporate strategy of the pharmaceutical sectors of 4 international pharmaceutical companies. This research adopts the hybrid approach of combining qualitative and quantitative methods in a two stages research design. Quantitative method is applied first to deal with the comparative figures, and then qualitative method is used to find out the problem. The design of this multiple research includes three phases: data collection, analysis, and reporting. The findings of this research can be divided into 4 parts: R&D/marketing, technology alliances, strategic acquisitions and merger, and manufacturing. The drug innovative projects are recommended being developed within the company's familiar therapeutic areas in order to take its marketing advantage. Through this comparative analysis, some of this type of problems of these international pharmaceutical companies is identified. A big pharmaceutical company forming alliances with some small biotechnology companies has become a trend within pharmaceutical industry since 1980s. For pharmaceutical companies, to take advantage of R&D through biotechnology is the main purpose of alliances with small biotechnology companies. It is important to note that most pharmaceutical acquisitions belong to the type of absorption with high resource transferring and low autonomy. Due to the high profit margin and the essential importance of R&D and marketing, the operation management of manufacturing of pharmaceutical industry is relatively poor. The low asset utilisation rate pointed out this problem. Academic researches have revealed that existing theories of operation management of manufacturing, such as action research, set-up reduction, teamwork, continuous improvement, collaboration, and involvement, are applicable and beneficial to pharmaceutical industry rather than waiting for the technology breakthroughs.

Neutron stars are invaluable tools for exploring stellar death, the physics of ultra-dense matter, and the effects of extremely strong magnetic fields. The observed population of neutron stars is dominated by the >1000 radio pulsars, but there are distinct sub-populations that, while fewer in number, can have significant impact on our understanding of the issues mentioned above. These populations are the nearby, isolated neutron stars discovered by ROSAT, and the central compact objects in supernova remnants. The studies of both of these populations have been greatly accelerated in recent years through observations with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the XMM-Newton telescope. First, we discuss radio, optical, and X-ray observations of the nearby neutron stars aimed at determining their relation to the Galactic neutron star population and at unraveling their complex physical processes by determining the basic astronomical parameters that define the population---distances, ages, and magnetic fields---the uncertainties in which limit any attempt to derive basic physical parameters for these objects. We conclude that these sources are 1e6 year-old cooling neutron stars with magnetic fields above 1e13 Gauss. Second, we describe the hollow supernova remnant problem: why many of the supernova remnants in the Galaxy have no indication of central neutron stars. We have undertaken an X-ray census of neutron stars in a volume-limited sample of Galactic supernova remnants, and from it conclude that either many supernovae do not produce neutron stars contrary to expectation, or that neutron stars can have a wide range in cooling behavior that makes many sources disappear from the X-ray sky.

The diversity of stellar death is revealed in the energy, velocity and geometry of the explosion debris ("ejecta''). Using multi-wavelength observations of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows I show that GRBs, arising from the death of massive stars, are marked by relativistic, collimated ejecta ("jets'') with a wide range of opening angles. These results suggest that various cosmic explosions are powered by a common energy source, an "engine'' (possibly an accreting stellar-mass black hole), with their diverse appearances determined solely by the variable high velocity output. On the other hand, using radio observations I show that local type Ibc core-collapse supernovae generally lack relativistic ejecta and are therefore not powered by engines. Instead, the highest velocity debris in these sources, typically with a velocity lower than 100,000 km/sec, are produced in the (effectively) spherical ejection of the stellar envelope. The relative rates of engine- and collapse-powered explosions suggest that the former account for only a small fraction of the stellar death rate. Using the first radio and submillimeter observations of GRB hosts, I show that some are extreme starburst galaxies with the bursts directly associated with the regions of most intense star formation. I suggest, by comparison to other well-studied samples, that GRBs preferentially occur in sub-luminous, low mass galaxies, undergoing the early stages of a starburst process. If confirmed with future observations, this trend will place GRBs in the forefront of star formation and galaxy evolution studies.

Does God change? Does it matter? If God is the immutable God, as interpreted from Classical Christian Tradition, a God who remains unalterable, what is the point of prayer? Does prayer, or any of our actions in the world for that matter, have any effect on God? Can we move God? Is God simply a static Being? Is prayer of use if God is absolutely immutable? Does God respond to prayer or to our actions in the world? Classical Tradition has presented us with a picture of an immutable God, a mono-polar God, who remains unalterable, unchanged, transcendent to our history in the world. Yet scriptural revelation and personal religious experience presents us with a God who, whilst transcendent to the world is also immanent, the God of Love who creates, redeems, a God who is affected by, who responds to, what is happening in the world; a God who listens and relates. William Norris Clarke's neo-Thomistic consideration of the nature of God's immutability rests on the basis of the notion of the Dynamic Being of God and forms the final focus and basis for our seeking a reconciliation of tradition, scripture and personal religious experience with respect to the nature of God's immutability. Discussion of Norris Clarke's work is supplemented by a consideration of the work of Robert A. Connor, and in support, that of David Schindler. Norris Clarke's classical reinterpretation gives credence both to scriptural revelation and personal experience of God's historical relationality and responsiveness to humankind without betraying the Classical Tradition. With independent support by Connor and in dialogue with Schindler, it becomes the favoured viewpoint.

In an effort to extend traditional human-computer interfaces research has introduced embodied agents to utilize the modalities of everyday human-human communication, like facial expression, gestures and body postures. However, giving computer agents a human-like body introduces new challenges. Since human users are very sensitive and critical concerning bodily behavior the agents must act naturally and individually in order to be believable. This dissertation focuses on conversational gestures. It shows how to generate conversational gestures for an animated embodied agent based on annotated text input. The central idea is to imitate the gestural behavior of a human individual. Using TV show recordings as empirical data, gestural key parameters are extracted for the generation of natural and individual gestures. The gesture generation task is solved in three stages: observation, modeling and generation. For each stage, a software module was developed. For observation, the video annotation research tool ANVIL was created. It allows the efficient transcription of gesture, speech and other modalities on multiple layers. ANVIL is application-independent by allowing users to define their own annotation schemes, it provides various import/export facilities and it is extensible via its plug-in interface. Therefore, the tool is suitable for a wide variety of research fields. For this work, selected clips of the TV talk show ``Das Literarische Quartett'' were transcribed and analyzed, arriving at a total of 1,056 gestures. For the modeling stage, the NOVALIS module was created to compute individual gesture profiles from these transcriptions with statistical methods. A gesture profile models the aspects handedness, timing and function of gestures for a single human individual using estimated conditional probabilities. The profiles are based on a shared lexicon of 68 gestures, assembled from the data. Finally, for generation, the NOVA generator was devised to create gestures based on gesture profiles in an overgenerate-and-filter approach. Annotated text input is processed in a graph-based representation in multiple stages where semantic data is added, the location of potential gestures is determined by heuristic rules, and gestures are added and filtered based on a gesture profile. NOVA outputs a linear, player-independent action script in XML.

This book offers not only a comprehensive analysis of the conflicts in Africa but also a milestone suggestion of what could be a breakthrough in attempts at resolving them. It suggests that underdevelopment lies at the genesis of most of the conflicts. The herein enunciated Developmental Peace Theory offers a more tenacious solution to the conflicts than the traditional Democratic Peace Theory. Conflicts would be avoided if Africans could concentrate on developing those aspects that protect them from preventable morbidity and sporadic hunger. This book is an interesting expose of the often neglected development approach to African conflicts. It contrasts the African democratisation process and development, while providing case study analysis to illustrate the real effects the phenomena have had on political transition and nation-building on the ground.

This text marks a little milestone in the understanding of the democratic peace theory in transitional states. It brings in a much needed perspective on the achievements and limitations of democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the role it plays or could play in the search for solutions to conflicts in the sub-region. The author provides a differentiated view of the traditional Western notions of democracy and its role in the search for political stability and nation-building.A series of fragile democratic developments in contemporary politics in the continent have set in processes of change in governance patterns and understandings about the idea of a nation state. However, these processes have been unable to stem the tide of conflicts that continue to raise their bloody heads in the continent. The author takes a critical look at the reasons for this limitation, while probing into the necessity for alternative ways of thinking about the causes and solutions to the conflicts.This text offers students and researchers a quick glance at the sources of conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa and an assessment of the implications of attempting to use democracy alone as a solution.

Students of organisation have used complexity theory in many different ways and for many different reasons. What characterises the writings of most 'management thinkers', however, is that the authors are primarily concerned with the question of "how to make this complexity thing work for us?" This study takes a rather different approach. Ideas and concepts of the science of complexity are borrowed to develop the idea that organisations live lives of their own - an idea that is very much at odds with the dominant view that understands organisations as tools that we use to realise certain goals. To illustrate matters, the book discusses the developments of the organisation of Vitesse, a mediocre Dutch professional football club that according to its president needed to be transformed into a major player in the family entertainment industry.