Facilitators are encouraged to get all meeting attendees to participate in the meeting. There is the assumption made that, if they do participate, then this participation will increase the group's general satisfaction of the meeting. Also, knowing the factors that can increase the probability of a successful meeting has been a focus of previous research, yet attendee participation has not been studied. The current research study empirically examines participation's effect on meeting evaluations. This study is a field experiment conducted in a team-based organization, where successful meetings are critical. Data was collected on the amount of participation of team members in their weekly team meeting and their evaluations of the meeting. After running correlations and a principal components analysis, this study found a relationship between participation and meeting evaluations. A scale of meeting success was also created.

Doctor Legum - LLD / Regional integration has been part of Africa’s overarching strategy for economic transformation. To further enhance sustainable development and economic growth, in the African continent intra-regional trade is equally as important as international trade. Therefore, African countries are faced with the daunting task of adopting comprehensive and well-structured measures to ensure the movement of goods and people across borders are seamless and unrestrictive. Free movement of persons in particular is one of the core tenets of regional integration, building towards a common market. To that effect, the African Union (AU) based on Agenda 2063 has agreed on a Continental Free Trade Area and a Protocol on Movement of Persons indicating a commitment of attaining a single market where goods, persons and services can move freely across national borders. With the Southern African Development Community (SADC) being a Regional Economic Community (REC) recognised under the AU, this thesis seeks to argue for deeper integration by ensuring the movement of persons in the SADC is regulated beyond the scope that is recognised internationally under the International laws influencing the movement of persons. Also, this thesis argues for amendment of certain provisions in the SADC Protocol on the Facilitation of the Movement of Persons to further facilitate intra-regional trade. The SADC operates to an extent as a Free Trade Area (FTA) where goods are traded duty free across borders and the intention is to go higher up the integration ladder to become a Common Market by 2015 and an Economic Union with a Single Currency by 2018. Targets which has not been met to date. Article 5(2) (d) and Article 23 of the SADC Trade Protocol realises the significance of policy development in promoting free movement of people and services within the SADC region. To facilitate the movement of people, the SADC drafted a Protocol on the Free Movement of People in 1995. This Protocol never materialised and it was subsequently replaced by a Protocol on Facilitation on Movement of People which is limited in scope and is not yet operational as ratification by two third majority of Member States has not occurred. In 2012, a Protocol on Trade in Services which also within a limited scope influences the movement of persons in the region was also concluded but is not yet ratified by Member States of the SADC. The absence of a single consistent and comprehensive framework makes people vulnerable to informal practices at the border. Thus, the issue of ensuring free movement of people between SADC Member States still remains debatable and unresolved.

Magister Legum - LLM / A popular difficulty that all SMEs have had to face is limited access to finance. The fact that banks are not prepared to finance small businesses, has exacerbated the existing 'financing gap' in the small and medium-sized business which is already present in the SME industry. In an analysis of small and medium business are faced with a myriad of difficulties often as a result of restrictions in current collateral systems that do not offer a viable degree of risk mitigation due to ineffectual legislation, insufficient enforcement procedures, or an existing legal structure.1 All of these have therefore made factoring a great choice as far as SMEs go in all African countries that want to have access to financial services. Factoring is the service that, in order to provide the underlying credit sales of goods or services (known as a factor), is provided by a third-party.

Coastal dune vegetation plays a key role in dune formation and stabilization through sediment trapping and erosion control. To restore degraded dunes, revegetation of dune building species is critical. Planting density has been found to effect growth of marsh species, with closer plantings alleviating stress through facilitation. As coastal dunes are high stress environments, it is expected that dune species may also exhibit facilitative interactions based on the Stress Gradient Hypothesis. Therefore, planting grasses in clumped configurations may lead to more successful dune revegetation. The objective of this research was to determine how planting density affects the growth of two dominant dune grasses along the US Atlantic coast, Ammophila breviligulata and Uniola paniculata, through field surveys of natural distribution, density, and a manipulation study of planting densities. Natural distribution differed between the two species with A. breviligulata occurring at lower dunes and U. paniculata occurring at higher dunes. Ammophila breviligulata occurred more densely than U. paniculata. Planting density of U. paniculata had an effect on growth parameters (shoot length, stem number, and ramet number) but not survival with dispersed plantings (50 cm apart) having higher growth than clumped plantings. The effect of density planting on growth parameters may impact dune building processes. Sparsely planted U. paniculata may have greater sediment capture compared to densely planted U. paniculata due to greater stem number and biomass resulting in taller, steeper dunes.

High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) are linked to positive developmental outcomes for children. Systems have been created to define, measure and promote high-quality ECEC. National accreditation status is deemed the gold standard of a high-quality program, yet many centers are unable to achieve this without assistance. With the help of Accreditation Facilitation Projects (AFPs), many low-income centers are able to achieve accreditation. Centers collaborating with an AFP reap many benefits including financial support, ongoing training and mentoring, and guidance through the accreditation process. AFPs invest greatly in the centers they collaborate with and the longer the center takes to achieve accreditation, the more resources an AFP must expend. The purposes of this study were to understand if the educational level of center director, the total enrollment of a center, or the percentage of children receiving government subsidies could predict the time it takes for a center to complete the accreditation process while receiving assistance from an AFP, and to determine if there are differences in attitudes about program accreditation between center directors and early learning specialists who serve as accreditation mentors to the directors. Findings revealed that a) the higher educational level of program directors is associated with a quicker time to program accreditation, b) both the total enrollment of the center and the percentage of children receiving government subsidies do not predict time to accreditation, c) the number of total staff in a center is associated with a quicker time to accreditation, and d) there is no significant difference between the directors' attitudes and early learning specialists' attitudes toward accreditation and accreditation facilitation projects. AFPs looking to streamline their accreditation process and provide accountability to their stakeholders regarding their investments over time can use these findings to choose to collaborate with centers that have directors who have at least a bachelor's degree in order to shorten the time to accreditation.

Research in salt marshes dominated by the grass Sporobolus alterniflorus indicates that plant characteristics affect fiddler crab burrowing and in turn, crab activity can enhance primary productivity by increasing soil oxygen and nutrient cycling. Crab-plant interactions are less understood in microtidal Gulf Coast marshes compared to Atlantic Coast tidal marshes. It is unknown how structure of the dominant Gulf Coast vegetation zones (salt marsh, brackish marsh, fresh marsh and salt pannes) affects density of crab burrows and how burrows may influence primary productivity. I hypothesized that fiddler crabs would be most abundant in marsh zones with intermediate substrate hardness and vegetation density (Goldilocks Hypothesis). A seasonal habitat preference study was conducted during 2016-2017 in tidal marshes at Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in coastal Mississippi using burrow density as a proxy for crab abundance. Plant above- and below-ground biomass, burrow proximity to vegetation, and soil hardness were also surveyed as potential drivers of fiddler crab populations. The results indicated that fiddler crabs burrow in all four zones, but to varying degrees, and that burrow density was highest during autumn. The fresh marsh had the highest average density of burrows, as well as vegetation and soil parameters most representative of intermediate habitat, thereby supporting the “Goldilocks Hypothesis”. The brackish marsh also proved to be important fiddler crab habitat. Preferential fiddler crab usage of habitat upslope of salt marsh, e.g., fresh and brackish marsh, in Gulf Coast sites suggests that they may avoid immediate impacts of rising sea levels and possibly even migrate to higher ground if needed.

Bakgrund: Frusen skuldra (FS) är ett smärttillstånd som drabbar 2-5% av befolkningen och som påverkar skulderfunktionen. I dagsläget finns det ingen konsensus kring den bästa behandlingsformen vid FS, dock anses proprioceptiv neuromuskulär facilitering (PNF) ge minskad smärta och ökad rörlighet (ROM) samt skulderfunktion.   Syfte: Att kartlägga evidensen av PNF som behandling vid FS. Det var även att granska kvaliteten i inkluderade studier och att studera effekten av PNF på skulderfunktion och ROM. Metod: En systematisk litteraturstudie. Sökningen utfördes i databaserna PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science samt Google scholar. Artiklarna kvalitetsgranskades med PEDro scale och tillförlitligheten graderades med GRADEstud.  Resultatsammanfattning: Åtta artiklar inkluderades i studien med totalt 360 deltagare. Enligt PEDro scale varierade kvaliteten i studierna mellan tre till åtta poäng. Evidensgraderingen enligt GRADEstud visade mycket låg (+) evidens gällande skulderfunktion och låg (++) evidens gällande ROM. Graderingen baserades på fyra studier av hög kvalitet vid skulderfunktion respektive ROM. Studiernas resultat var motstridiga gällande huruvida PNF ger en signifikant positiv effekt på skulderfunktion och ROM vid FS. Konklusion: Det finns mycket låg (+) evidens för att PNF skulle ha en effekt på skulderfunktionen och en låg (++) evidens för att PNF har en effekt på ROM. För att förtydliga evidensen och användningen av PNF behövs fler studier av hög kvalitet och med liknande tillvägagångssätt. / Background: Frozen shoulder (FS) is a painful condition affecting 2-5% of the population and it affects the shoulder function. Currently there’s no consensus to which treatment is most effective in FS. However, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) is assumed to bring pain relief and increase range of motion (ROM) and shoulder function.  Objective: To review the evidence regarding the effect of PNF as treatment in patients with FS. It’s also to examine the quality of included studies and to study the effect of PNF on shoulder function and ROM.  Method: A systematic review. The search was conducted in the databases of PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science and Google scholar. The quality was assessed according to PEDro scale and the reliability with GRADEstud.  Results: Eight studies were included with a total of 360 participants. The quality of the studies ranged between three to eight points according to PEDro scale. According to GRADEstud PNF received very low (+) evidence for shoulder function and low (++) evidence for ROM. The grading was based on four, high quality studies for both shoulder function and ROM. The included studies were conflicting regarding whether PNF had a significant, positive effect on shoulder function and ROM in FS.   Conclusion: There’s very low (+) evidence that PNF would have an effect on shoulder function and low (++) evidence that PNF has an effect on ROM. In order to clarify the evidence there’s a need for future well-conducted studies with a similar approach.

There are few descriptions of what teachers do to facilitate discussions that support students’ development of mathematical agency. Likewise, little is known about how elementary students conceptualize their own agency. This study explored how teachers’ facilitation of mathematical discussions potentially fostered students’ mathematical agency. Additionally, this study investigated ways in which students conceptualized their own mathematical agency within these classrooms. This study was situated in an urban school with a linguistically, academically, and ethnically diverse student population. The sample consisted of two upper elementary school teachers and their pupils (n = 40). Data, collected during the 2018–19 school year, included 12 observations of mathematics lessons, 4 interviews with the teacher participants, and teacher questionnaires. Student data were collected using the Student Agency Questionnaire (SAQ) and group interviews. Mathematics lessons were videotaped, transcribed, and coded to discern ways in which teacher participants facilitated mathematical discussions. Two case studies focused on participants' classroom discussion practices were created. Themes that emerged from the case studies were that teacher participants fostered students’ mathematical agency through their facilitation of discussions by 1) creating a positive learning community; 2) supporting students’ willingness to publicly engage in mathematical discussions; and 3) sharing the power of teaching and learning. Analysis of the Student Agency Questionnaire (SAQ) data indicated that students in both teacher participant classrooms reported behaviors associated with mathematical agency. Observations and group interview data supported the SAQ results that students in both classrooms displayed mathematical agency. Student group interview data analysis showed that students who considered themselves doers of mathematics exhibited the following characteristics: habits of perseverance, a confident attitude about doing mathematics, and a willingness to actively engage with mathematics. This study provides evidence that teachers’ facilitation moves have the power to maintain and extend students’ mathematical agency. This study will contribute to the little empirical research available on supporting students’ mathematical agency in elementary classrooms. Further research should continue to investigate in a larger array of classrooms at varying levels (elementary, middle and high school).

Thermal transport performance at the nanoscale and/or of biomaterials is essential to the success of many new technologies including nanoelectronics, biomedical devices, and various nanocomposites. Due to complicated microstructures and chemical bonding, thermal transport process in these materials has not been well understood yet. In terms of chemical bonding, it is well known that the strength of atomic bonding can significantly affect thermal transport across materials or across interfaces between materials. Given the intrinsic high strength of hydrogen bonds, this dissertation explores the role of hydrogen bonds in nanoscale thermal transport in various materials, and investigates novel material designs incorporating hydrogen bonds for drastically enhanced thermal conduction. Molecular dynamics simulation is employed to study thermal transport processes in three representative hydrogen-bonded materials: (1) crystalline motifs of the spider silk, silkworm silk and synthetic silk, (2) crystalline polymer nanofibers, and (3) polymer nanocomposites incorporating graphene or functionalized graphene. Computational and theoretical investigations demonstrate that hydrogen bonds significantly facilitate thermal transport in all three material systems. The underlying molecular mechanisms are systematically investigated. The results will not only contribute new physical insights, but also provide novel concepts of materials design to improve thermal properties towards a wide range of applications.

The effectiveness of champions in increasing the use of innovations and improving outcomes across health care contexts is not well synthesized in the literature. A systematic review was conducted using the JBI systematic review method. A total of 35 studies (37 articles) were included in the review. The use of champions was related to improvements in system/facility use of innovations. However, the evidence pertaining to causal relationships between use of champions and use of innovations or outcomes is currently inconclusive according to the findings of systematic review. Key limitations of the included primary studies were the use of observational study designs (n = 28) and the lack of detailed description of the champion strategy (n = 26). Future studies that evaluate the effectiveness champions should:1) clearly describe the champion strategy in detail, 2) use experimental design in conjunction to process evaluation, 3) and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of deploying champions.