To be made effective, class action settlements must be negotiated fairly, be perceived as fair and reasonable by the settlement parties such that they agree to their terms and substance, and be characterized as fair, reasonable and adequate by a court at the occasion of a settlement approval hearing. But how is settlement fairness defined, in a collective litigation context? By which process is the evaluation of fairness made and the approval given by the court? What role does the court correspondingly have, in that context? This thesis explores the legal policy and reasoning behind the mandatory judicial approval of class settlements, the process by which it is sought and obtained, the currently relevant factors and indicia of settlement fairness which support all decisions to approve, and the roles of the principal settlement actors, particularly the settlement judge. It suggests hypotheses for reform applicable to these approval processes, roles of the actors and standard of settlement fairness. These hypotheses are tested, for their plausibility, against empirical data obtained from the qualitative interviews of seventeen judges conducted by the author in four target jurisdictions that have similar approaches to class action settlement approvals, and where class action litigation activity is heavy: Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and the United States federal courts. Ultimately, the thesis proposes final recommendations for reform of the class action settlement approval procedure. / Toute transaction hors cour en matière de recours collectif doit être négociée équitablement, être perçue comme étant juste et équitable par les parties afin qu'elles puissent consentir à son contenu, et être évaluée comme telle à l'occasion d'une homologation par un juge donnée lors d'une audience sur le caractère équitable de la transaction. Comment ce caractère juste et équitable de la transaction peut-il être proprement évalué dans un contexte collectif? Quel processus et quelle procédure le juge doit-il suivre dans l'évaluation du caractère juste et équitable? Quel rôle le juge doit-il avoir, dans ce contexte bien précis? Cette thèse explore les raisons sous-jacentes à l'approbation judiciaire des transactions de recours collectif, le processus par lequel de telles transactions sont soumises par les parties pour évaluation et approbation, ainsi que celui par lequel le juge évalue et décide ou non d'approuver la transaction. Les critères d'équité et de raisonnabilité d'une transaction projetée sont également discutés, tout comme le rôle des principaux acteurs impliqués dans le règlement, incluant principalement celui du juge évaluateur et approbateur. La thèse suggère des hypothèses de réforme relatives au processus d'évaluation et d'approbation, aux rôles des acteurs judiciaires et au standard d'équité et de raisonnabilité transactionnelle. Ces hypothèses sont ensuite testées, pour leur plausibilité, par rapport aux données obtenues dans le cadre de dix-sept entrevues de juges, effectuées par l'auteure, juges agissant dans quatre juridictions principales dans lesquelles les pourcentages de recours collectifs intentés demeurent les plus élevés : Québec, l'Ontario, la Colombie-Britannique et les cours fédérales américaines. Enfin, des recommandations définitives de réforme sont proposées dans le but d'améliorer le fonctionnement du système d'approbation des transactions collectives, ainsi que l'équité et la raisonnabilité des processus, procédures et résultats dans ce contexte.

The thesis presents an investigation of the direct and indirect impact of environmental legal principles on international nuclear law and the regulation of nuclear activities, seeking to offer an up-to-date material for decision-making institutions and society on the main challenges that are necessary to overcome in order to reach the situation where nuclear energy could in the most effective way contribute to the implementation of environmental aims and where the environment could be adequately protected against any risks of the possible transboundary damage caused by nuclear activities developed for peaceful purposes (the analysis carried out in the thesis adopts an ecocentric rather than anthropocentric approach). The environmental legal principles chosen as an object for the analysis are those that provide for the guidelines and directions for the development of the international norms of nuclear law as well as lay down the regime for protecting natural environment (environmental safeguards) and international liability for environmental damage caused as a result of nuclear activities (i.e., the principles of cooperation, sustainable development, prevention, precaution, polluter pays, and the principle of information). After defining the points of interaction between international environmental law and nuclear law, the analysis proceeds with the examination of problems related to the evolution of environmental legal principles and their perspectives in the area of the... [to full text] / Disertacijoje nagrinėjama tiesioginė ir netiesioginė aplinkos teisės principų įtaka tarptautinei branduolinei teisei ir branduolinės energetikos objektų reguliavimui, siekiant informuoti sprendimus priimančias institucijas ir visuomenę apie pagrindinius iššūkius, kuriuos reikia įveikti siekiant, kad branduolinė energetika kiek įmanoma veiksmingiau prisidėtų įgyvendinant aplinkosauginius tikslus, o aplinka būtų tinkamai apsaugota nuo taikiais tikslais vystomos branduolinės veiklos keliamos tarpvalstybinės žalos rizikos (analizės metu vyrauja ekocentrinis, o ne antropocentrinis požiūris). Analizės objektu pasirinkti tie aplinkos teisės principai, kurie numato gaires tarptautinėms branduolinės teisės normoms plėtotis, nustato gamtos apsaugos režimą (saugiklius) bei tarptautinę atsakomybę, atsirandančią dėl branduolinės energetikos objektų sukelto žalingo poveikio aplinkai (t.y. bendradarbiavimo, darnaus vystymosi, prevencijos, atsargumo, teršėjas moka ir informavimo principai). Nurodžius tarptautinės aplinkos teisės ir branduolinės teisės sąlyčio taškus, toliau nagrinėjamos problemos dėl aplinkos teisės principų raidos ir perspektyvų branduolinės energetikos objektų reglamentavimo srityje, pateikiama susijusi nacionalinių ir tarptautinių ginčų sprendimo institucijų dėl branduolinės energetikos objektų praktika, atsakoma į klausimą, kuris iš minėtų aplinkos teisės principų veikimo modelių – tiesioginis ar netiesioginis – yra veiksmingesnis siekiant įgyvendinti užsibrėžtus... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of students of color at an urban commuter university as they relate to the constructs utilized within the engagement literature and to the noncognitive student characteristics literature. Data were collected using the following instruments: William Sedlacek's Noncognitive Questionnaire (NCQ), items from the Beginning College Student Survey of Engagement (BCSSE), items from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), and individual and small group interviews. The key findings of this study revealed that noncognitive characteristics assisted students in (a) internalizing messages, (b) understanding systemic processes, and (c) identifying motivating factors. These findings underscore the importance of moving away from a monolithic understanding of engagement to a more complex consideration of the ways in which students interact with the campus environment. Furthermore, this study showed the importance of providing incoming students with the opportunity to build on noncognitive personal skills, experiences, and characteristics&mdash;assets that are not measured by traditional college entrance requirements such as high school grades or standardized test scores and that often have not been seen as being directly related to academic success. This can be accomplished through the development of curricular and co-curricular experiences that include comprehensive programs and activities as they pertain to internalizing key messages, determining motivators, and understanding systemic processes.</p>

Critics have offered many views about the structure of Piers Plowman. Provided with few clues, they have tried to determine from the dominant features the poem's organizing factors. However, since 1926, when G. R. Owst suggested in Preaching in Medieval England that the meaning of Piers would become clear if the poem were compared in its thematic and artistic elements with sermon literature (295-296), only a few critics have discussed Langland's use of the sermon form. This present study argues that Langland structured his poem as a sermon to answer the Dreamer's question, "How I may saue my soule?" (B. I. 84), and to explain that salvation is attained by knowing and observing the love commandments, a Scriptural theme frequently treated in the sermons of the time. By comparing the structure of Piers with that of the sermon as Robert of Basevorn describes in Forma praedicandi (1322), I show that Langland forms his poem with the use of sermon "ornaments": invention of theme, antetheme/protheme, prayer concluding the antetheme, restatement of theme, division and confirmation of divisions, and concluding prayer. In addition, I show that the visions and passus, which are interrupted with the Dreamer's awakening, form subdivisions in each of the sections. I also show that Langland uses dream-allegory, dramatic-narrative, and satirical exempla to embellish his explanation of salvation. This parallel of the "art" in Langland's poem with the "art" of preaching shows that the poem has a definite structural and thematic unity and that the logical plan makes Christian belief concerning salvation understandable, instructive, and persuasive.

Extensive research has been conducted on the leadership skills that are required to improve a team’s performance. However, theories have not managed to explain conclusively how certain leadership skills are able to improve a team's performance over others. Recent studies, have shifted the focus from trying to single out leadership skills that improve a team’s performance to identifying categories of skills - like ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills - that improve a team's performance. This study develops and explains how the categories of meta skills and technical skills provide a more comprehensive explanation of leadership skills than the categories of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ skills. This study explores the relationship between a leader’s meta skills and technical skills on a team’s performance. A case study method within an interpretive paradigm was used to assess the way in which meta and technical skills were perceived to improve a team’s performance. The study drew from the rich insights of leaders and team members within four programmes located in the Graduate School of Public and Development Management. Open-ended and closed-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews gathered data to assess the perceived skills required in an ideal leader to improve team performance. The study revealed that a team’s performance improves when a leader emphasises the exercise of meta skills above the exercise of technical skills. However, an over-emphasis of either meta skills or technical skills results in the demoralisation of a team which eventually leads to the reduction of a team’s performance. The notion of meta skills and technical skills should therefore not be regarded as discrete factors that impact on a team’s performance in a linear causeeffect relationship. Instead, a team’s performance is affected by the interaction of factors within the individual, organisational and global context, as well as by the exercise of meta and technical skills in a dynamic and inter-connected process.

The photographer discusses the work in Elsewhere, her Master of Fine Arts exhibition held at East Tennessee State University in the Reece Museum, located in Johnson City, Tennessee. The exhibition is displayed from March 1 through March 31, 2016 and consists of 17 color photographs and 3 videos representing a body of work that visually communicates the photographer’s interest in transient lifestyles. The influence and research regarding the concept is communicated by a focus on artists, literature and art historical knowledge that pertain to Law’s work. The artists included are Rineke Dijkstra, Jocelyn Lee, Lise Sarfati, Stephen Shore, Robert Frank, Rania Matar, Gregory Crewdson, and Walker Evans, as well as Edward Hopper, Lucian Freud, and Rachel Whiteread, and the poet Charles Baudelaire, among other writers referenced and other topics concerning aesthetics of travel and space. Images of the photographer’s work and a catalogue of the exhibition is included.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 85-86). Also available in print.

Although it has been argued that indoor workers in fact make up the majority of the sex industry, most of the literature on the transition out of sex work has looked at street-based workers. This interview-based qualitative research project aims to fill that gap. As such, this thesis examines the trajectories, challenges and strategies of women who transitioned or are in the process of transitioning from criminalized indoor sex work (escorting, erotic massage and domination) to the mainstream labour market. Using Ebaugh’s role exit theory and Goffman’s conceptualization of stigma, intersectional feminist analysis and labour theory, I position the transition as a re-negotiation of self, involving conflicts in identity and class location. My findings suggest that the transition out of sex work is characterized by multiple, parallel work trajectories, wherein the women were successfully able to transfer skills they had acquired in sex work to the mainstream labour market.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

The development of a novel combined "ultrasonic/thermal" with "ultrasonic multiple reflections" clamp-on meter for measuring a wide flowrate range of clean liquids in small diameter pipes is presented. Current existing flowmeters based on ultrasound cannot measure very low flowrates for single phase liquids. The ultrasonic/thermal technique can measure single phase flows in the range 0 to 0.6 m s' in pipes with diameters as small as 15 mm. It can also detect and measure reverse flows. The minimum flowrate for the ultrasonic multiple reflection technique is about 0.55 m s', and theoretically, the measurement accuracy increases with increased flow velocity. The ultrasonic/thermal technique is based on a heating element and transducer pair(s) which can be clamped to the outside of a pipe. With the heaters switched on, the changes in the temperature of the pipe and the liquid inside it result in changes in transit time. The flowrate can be therefore estimated by either the transit time difference across the pipe at the two symmetric locations with respect to the heater centre, or at one location with a heater off/on comparison. The latter approach was felt to be the promising for low flowrate measurements and therefore selected for the numerical and the experimental investigations. The multiple reflection technique was developed based on the conventional transit time flowmeter. This technique extended the measuring range of the flowmeter and provided cross calibration for the ultrasonic/thermal technique. A computer model was developed for the ultrasonic multiple reflection technique. However, there was insufficient experimental data to confirm the computer prediction. Results from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the meter are presented. For vertical pipes an axisymmetric model was used, but the presence of buoyancy forces required the use of a 3-D model for horizontal pipes. Temperature and velocity distributions and ultrasonic transit times have been computed and are presented. In order to overcome the problem of mode conversion and refraction at the pipe wall/transducer mounting interface, novel transducers and mounting blocks are presented. A prototype heater and ultrasonic transducer system together with electronics for signal generation and transit time measurement have been designed and constructed. A hydraulic system has also been designed and constructed for testing the developed clamp-on flowmeter. Experimental results from this apparatus are presented and compared with the CFD predictions, and a technique for compensating for variations in inlet temperature is described. The full scale difference between the computed values and experimental results of the meter for low flowrate measurement was about 3.5%.