Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in the industrialized world. This pilot study investigated demographic, clinical and environmental factors associated with return to work (RTW) among workers who sustained a mild to moderate work-related TBI (WrTBI). Using a retrospective cohort design, participants were recruited through an outpatient clinic dedicated to evaluating injured workers after a WrTBI. A mailed survey and medical record abstraction tool were used for data collection. Of the 40 injured workers who participated in this study, 19 reported working at time of follow-up. Those who were unable to RTW scored significantly lower on measures of emotional well-being; there were no significant between-group differences in cognitive or physical impairments. Gradual RTW and workplace accommodations were reported as key factors facilitating RTW. Our findings provide information that addresses improved rehabilitation and management of WrTBI as well as better education and support for employers.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in the industrialized world. This pilot study investigated demographic, clinical and environmental factors associated with return to work (RTW) among workers who sustained a mild to moderate work-related TBI (WrTBI). Using a retrospective cohort design, participants were recruited through an outpatient clinic dedicated to evaluating injured workers after a WrTBI. A mailed survey and medical record abstraction tool were used for data collection. Of the 40 injured workers who participated in this study, 19 reported working at time of follow-up. Those who were unable to RTW scored significantly lower on measures of emotional well-being; there were no significant between-group differences in cognitive or physical impairments. Gradual RTW and workplace accommodations were reported as key factors facilitating RTW. Our findings provide information that addresses improved rehabilitation and management of WrTBI as well as better education and support for employers.

This thesis documents the design and fabrication of an experimental facility that was built to produce a turbulent plane wall jet. The target flow was two-dimensional with a uniform profile of the mean streamwise velocity and a low turbulence level at the slot exit. The design requirements for a flow conditioning apparatus that could produce this flow were determined. The apparatus was then designed and constructed, and measurements of the fluid flow were obtained using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The first series of measurements was along the slot width, the second series was along the slot centerline and the third was at 46 slot heights off the centerline. The Reynolds number, based on the slot height and jet exit velocity, of the wall jet varied from 7594 to 8121. Data for the streamwise and transverse components of velocity and the three associated Reynolds stress components were analyzed and used to determine the characteristics of the wall jet.<p> This experimental facility was able to produce a profile of the mean streamwise velocity near the slot exit that was uniform over 71% of the slot height with a streamwise turbulence that was equal to 1.45% of the mean velocity. This initial velocity was maintained to 6 slot heights. The fully developed region for the centerline and the off-centerline measurements was determined to extend from 50 to 100 slot heights and 40 to 100 slot heights, respectively. This was based on self-similarity of the mean streamwise velocity profiles when scaled using the maximum streamwise velocity and the jet half-width. The off-centerline Reynolds stress profiles achieved a greater degree of collapse than did the centerline profiles.<p> The rate of spread of the wall jet along the centerline was 0.080 in the self-similar region from 50 to 100 slot heights, and the off-centerline growth rate was 0.077 in the self-similar region from 40 to 100 slot heights. The decay rate of the maximum streamwise velocity was -0.624 within the centerline self-similar region, and -0.562 within the off-centerline self-similar region. These results for the spread and decay of the wall jet compared well with recent similar studies.<p> The two-dimensionality was initially assessed by measuring the mean streamwise velocity at 1 slot height along the entire slot width. The two-dimensionality of this wall jet was further analyzed by comparing the centerline and off-centerline profiles of the mean streamwise velocity at 2/3, 4, 50, 80, and 100 slot heights, and by comparing the growth rates and decay rates. Although this facility was able to produce a wall jet that was initially two-dimensional, the two-dimensionality was compromised downstream of the slot, most likely due to the presence of return flow and spanwise spreading. Without further measurements, it is not yet clear exactly how the lack of complete two-dimensionality affects the flow characteristics noted above.

Nursing is a high risk profession for injury. A Canadian survey reports many nurses are in poor physical and emotional health; they sustain more musculoskeletal and violence related injuries than other occupational groups. In Ontario, an injury management approach called Early Return to Work (RTW) requires injured workers, including nurses, to go back to work before full recovery. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board cite this approach as beneficial to both the employer and employee. This study uses an institutional ethnographic approach to examine critically the RTW process from the standpoint of injured registered nurses. Through interviews and mapping activities with nurses, other health professionals and managers, a rendering of the social organization of hospital injury management emerges. The findings suggest that the implementation of RTW is complicated and difficult for nurses, their families and hospital employers. Injured nurses engage in significant amounts of domestic, rehabilitation and accommodation work in order to participate in the RTW process. When the returning nurse is unable to engage in full duties hospital operations become disorganized. Collective agreements and human resources procedures limit the participation of injured nurses in creative and/or new roles that could utilize their knowledge and skills. As a result, nurses are assigned to duties, which hamper them from returning to their pre-injury positions and cause their employment with the hospital to be reconsidered. The unsuccessful return of injured nurses to employment is counter to provincial retention initiatives, which seek to sustain an adequate cadre of nurses ready and able to care for the increasing health care needs of an aging population. Sites of change which could support and promote the successful return of these injured workers to nursing work are identified in this study.

This study examines the performance of long-short equity trading strategies from January 1990 to December 2010. This study combines two financial screens that will yield candidates for both long and short positions for each month during the aforementioned time period. Two long-short strategies are tested: (1) perfectly-hedged, or equal allocation to long and short positions, and (2) net-long. The results of this thesis reveal that if a long-short equity manager is able to successfully determine what companies are overvalued and undervalued and actively rebalance their portfolio, perfectly-hedged and net-long strategies can generate superior risk-adjusted alpha.

Nursing is a high risk profession for injury. A Canadian survey reports many nurses are in poor physical and emotional health; they sustain more musculoskeletal and violence related injuries than other occupational groups. In Ontario, an injury management approach called Early Return to Work (RTW) requires injured workers, including nurses, to go back to work before full recovery. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board cite this approach as beneficial to both the employer and employee. This study uses an institutional ethnographic approach to examine critically the RTW process from the standpoint of injured registered nurses. Through interviews and mapping activities with nurses, other health professionals and managers, a rendering of the social organization of hospital injury management emerges. The findings suggest that the implementation of RTW is complicated and difficult for nurses, their families and hospital employers. Injured nurses engage in significant amounts of domestic, rehabilitation and accommodation work in order to participate in the RTW process. When the returning nurse is unable to engage in full duties hospital operations become disorganized. Collective agreements and human resources procedures limit the participation of injured nurses in creative and/or new roles that could utilize their knowledge and skills. As a result, nurses are assigned to duties, which hamper them from returning to their pre-injury positions and cause their employment with the hospital to be reconsidered. The unsuccessful return of injured nurses to employment is counter to provincial retention initiatives, which seek to sustain an adequate cadre of nurses ready and able to care for the increasing health care needs of an aging population. Sites of change which could support and promote the successful return of these injured workers to nursing work are identified in this study.

This paper studies the link between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and operating performance of companies between two countries in the same industry. This study analyze the relationship between financial performance indicators ROE (return on equity), OM (operating margin) and CSD (corporate social disclosure) for five listed Swedish apparel companies on the Stockholm exchange market and five listed Chinese apparel companies on the Chinese exchange market by using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The main findings are that there are mixed results in the relationship between CSR disclosure and operating performance for two countries’ companies. And there are some differences in this relationship between two countries’ companies.

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La tesis doctoral se compone de cuatro partes perfectamente diferenciadas y a su vez totalmente conexionadas. La primera parte analiza las vías de expansión de las cadenas hoteleras, su concentración y movilidad así como los factores que han propiciado que los contratos de franquicia se hayan convertido en la estrategia de crecimiento preferida por parte de las cadenas hoteleras con mayor número de habitaciones del mundo.La segunda parte se centra en analizar como afecta a las rentabilidades que obtienen las cadenas hoteleras la utilización de las distintas estrategias de crecimiento.En la tercera parte de la tesis doctoral valoramos a los activos hoteleros no sólo por la rentabilidad que ofrecen sino también por las distintas opciones que tiene un establecimiento hotelero a la hora de elegir su estrategia de crecimiento actual y los cambios que en un futuro puede realizar en dicha estrategia de crecimiento.Finalmente, en la cuarta parte tratan de determinarse cuáles son los factores clave que influyen en el proceso de decisión utilizado por las cadenas hoteleras de Baleares a la hora de elegir su estrategia de crecimiento para llevar a cabo su expansión en la región del Caribe y el golfo de México.

With increasing demand of electric power in the context of deregulated electricity markets, a good strategic planning for the growth of the power system is critical for our tomorrow. There is a need to build new resources in the form of generation plants and transmission lines while considering the effects of these new resources on power system operations, market economics and the long-term dynamics of the economy. In deregulation, the exercise of generation planning has undergone a paradigm shift. The first stage of generation planning is now undertaken by the individual investors. These investors see investments in generation capacity as an increasing business opportunity because of the increasing market prices. Therefore, the main objective of such a planning exercise, carried out by individual investors, is typically that of long-term profit maximization. This thesis presents some modeling frameworks for generation capacity expansion planning applicable to independent investor firms in the context of power industry deregulation. These modeling frameworks include various technical and financing issues within the process of power system planning. The proposed modeling frameworks consider the long-term decision making process of investor firms, the discrete nature of generation capacity addition and incorporates transmission network modeling. Studies have been carried out to examine the impact of the optimal investment plans on transmission network loadings in the long-run by integrating the generation capacity expansion planning framework within a modified IEEE 30-bus transmission system network. The work assesses the importance of arriving at an optimal IRR at which the firm’s profit maximization objective attains an extremum value. The mathematical model is further improved to incorporate binary variables while considering discrete unit sizes, and subsequently to include the detailed transmission network representation. The proposed models are novel in the sense that the planning horizon is split into plan sub-periods so as to minimize the overall risks associated with long-term plan models, particularly in the context of deregulation.