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There remains a discord among orthodontists regarding the usefulness of a lateral cephalogram radiograph as a part of diagnostic records for treatment planning. Today, orthodontists take diagnostic lateral cephalograms largely based on a personal preference, rather than following any evidence-based approached for determining whether taking the radiograph will affect treatment planning. The aim of this study is to identify patients with the type of malocclusion for which the availability of a lateral cephalogram radiograph will affect the treatment plan. This would prevent patients, whose treatment plan would not benefit from a diagnostic lateral cephalogram, from receiving unnecessary ionizing radiation. The data for this study was obtained from responses to two questionnaires, mailed five weeks apart, to ten orthodontists with clinical experience. Primarily, the orthodontists were required to treatment plan twenty cases, twice, once with full diagnostic records including a lateral cephalogram radiograph and once without. Six orthodontists completed both questionnaires. Based on the data, it was found that for approximately 25% of patients having a lateral cephalogram radiograph does affect treatment planning. These patients present with bilateral, sagittal dental malocclusions, matching significant soft-tissue profile disharmony and at least one arch with a moderate arch length discrepancy. A larger, follow-up study is suggested to further investigate the relationship between malocclusion, lateral cephalogram radiographs, and treatment planning. / Oral Biology

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This document is about a plan to develop physical education curriculum in Malawi. Despite its official recognition, the subject is often regarded as a low entity on the school curriculum. Several factors contribute to this status, chief among them is: lack of well-prepared teachers; equipment and materials; negative attitude by certain key individuals in the society. This document is the first attempt to develop a broad and balanced physical education curriculum in Malawi. In this document, two curriculum frameworks have been provided. One such curriculum frameworks is for the primary school (elementary) grades 1-8 and the other, the secondary (high) school 1-4. These frameworks are detailed with teaching and learning topics in physical education in such a way that every school child will have an opportunity to participate for enjoyment, knowledge and skill acquisition for personal and national benefit. This study is drawn upon the US and UK models where programs such as Saber-Tooth, Catch, Spark and Sport-England have been very successful. The assumption of this plan, comprehensive as it may be, is the essence of collective effort of the people of Malawi to implement the ideas it contains. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this paper is to examine findings related to the problems that school systems confront in educating all students and the approaches used in solving those problems through the use of alternative educational curricula and settings. It considers that schools foster public engagement, not simply public relations, in order to bring the communities they serve into conversation, which calls for listening, responding, and educating. Findings indicate that concerns about poor performance on standardized tests, academic standards, and the numbers of students dropping out of schools are among the problems many public schools unfortunately have in common in both rural and urban areas. These deficiencies exist in populations represented in public schools throughout this country. This study reveals that even though these seemingly insurmountable problems are an on-going cause for public concerns of American schools, school leaders are addressing these issues through policies and practices in alternative education programs. The category of educational alternative option studied will be that of public choice alternative education. Public choice options are open to all students in their localities who meet the placement criteria. The chosen school studied, the Virginia Randolph Community High School , was identified by the Virginia State Department of Education as having an established public choice alternative education program. This alternative high school has been fully accredited by Virginia standards. This investigation will also examine the influence of a historical figure, Miss Virginia Estelle Randolph, on the present alternative educational program at Virginia Randolph Community High School. / Ed. D.

A current trend in residential construction is the use of prefabricated wall panels. It is important to carefully establish how panels will be stacked, because an optimal sequence will improve productivity and reduce the possibility of worker injury. Mathematical models and heuristics are proposed for solving the panel stacking problem without consideration of interference. Dissertation work includes a mathematical model of the corresponding panel stacking problems in which the goal is to minimize total weighted panel move distance concurrent with certain construction assumptions. The heuristic method was provided to establish how each panel would be stacked and gave the drop-off location of each stack. The heuristic method was found to be able to reduce the total weighted panel move distance and ensure connectivity was always maintained, meanwhile, interference could also be avoided. In terms of solution speed, the heuristic method can solve real size problems in less than one second. Solutions to such problems can increase productivity. Three improvements to the only known existing panel stacking algorithm with consideration of interference were proposed. The computational results indicate the proposed algorithm performed better than existing algorithm in all experimental cases. Improvement on panel move distance ranged from 1.35-47.93%, and improvement on interfering panels ranged from 20-100%. The proposed algorithm can solve non-rectangular cases (not possible with existing algorithm) and was compared with an experienced panel designer and commercial software. When compared to the proposed algorithm, total weighted panel move distance increased 0.10-85.52% and 0.77-136.23%, respectively, for the panel designer and software. While connectivity was 100% for all cases with the proposed algorithm (the algorithm ensures connectivity is always maintained), it ranged from 69.56-86.95% and 73.33-90.91%, however, for the panel designer and software respectively. Finally, the proposed algorithm can solve the interfering panels in the last stack: this cannot be done with the existing algorithm. Because prefabricated wall panels are typically large and cumbersome to work with, there is a significant probability of worker injury. It is important to carefully establish how each panel will be handled by workers. This is typically the responsibility of field construction foreman, but such personnel are often ill-equipped to make such decisions. An alternative, proactive approach is to establish how each panel will be handled in advance, such that overall ergonomic consequences can be properly considered. This dissertation presents mathematical models of the corresponding construction task scheduling and worker assignment problems, where the goal is to minimize total project completion time (subject to worker quantity constraints) and assign tasks to workers as evenly as possible. The solution of such problems can help residential construction managers better plan construction by establishing the ergonomic impact associated with a given construction plan. A heuristic was also developed to solve large problems by balancing workload between workers. The heuristic was found to be able to provide near-optimal solutions, and can solve large problems in less than one second. / Ph. D.

Child care centers are becoming much more influential in educating and caring for children because more and more families choose supplemental care for their young children in child development programs. In June 1997, Child and Adult Food Program (CACFP) served nearly 2.2 million children and provided meals to 2.6 million children in March 1998. A large number of children eat at least one and sometimes two or more of their meals at child care centers. It is imperative that nutritious and satisfying meals and snacks are served at child care centers. The purpose of this study was to examine menus planned in Head Start Program and Child Day Care Centers in Virginia and to assess if they meet the national Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) standards for vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron. Lunch menus for 3-5 year old children were collected from 114 CACFP staffs attending a state wide CACFP menu training session. Fifty-seven weekly menus were selected based on geographic representation to analyze vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron levels by a nutritional analysis computer program. Menus were also divided into Head Start Program and Child Day Care Center for further analysis and comparison. For all 57 sites, the mean values of these lunches exceeded the one-third RDAs for vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium; the average percentages were 198%, 121% and 134%, respectively. But the average iron level was only 63% RDAs. None of the child care centers met 100% of one-third RDAs for the lunch menus. Because dietary iron levels are consistently low, iron food sources were studied. The results showed no significant (p< 0.05) difference between the Head Start Program and Child Day Care Center. Based on the findings of this study, following the established meal pattern guidelines for the child nutrition programs did not guarantee adequate iron levels in the planned menus of the child care centers. Some foods with high iron levels should be used more often. Further research is needed for this population in implementing the appropriate dietary guideline. In addition, the menu planing, food purchasing and preparation should be part of the training programs for child care centers. / Master of Science

I projekteringsfasen utformas en arbetsplatsdispositionsplan (APD-plan), vilket fungerar som en översiktlig illustration av byggarbetsplatsen. Denna ritning visualiserar de byggnader som finns på plats och visar var bland annat upplagsytor för material, transportvägar och bodetablering kan identifieras. För närvarande är 2D-ritningar den dominerande och mest frekvent använda typen av APD-planer. Det finns ytterligare dimensioner som kan adderas på en APD-plan, i denna studie undersöks de nästkommande dimensionerna, volym (3D) samt tidsaspekten (4D). För att analysera de utmaningar, möjligheter och värdet som en APD-plan i 3D och 4D kan medföra samt hur kunskapen och tillgängligheten kan utvecklas för att kontribuera till ett ökande användande av en APD-planering i 3D och 4D. Denna studie har en kvalitativ ansats med sju djupingående intervjuer. Resultatet visar att APD-planering i 3D och 4D ger en tydlig verklighetsbild av byggarbetsplatsens utseende. Vilket möjliggör att risker och fel kan uppmärksammas i ett tidigt skede och genom en simulering kopplat till tidplanen, blir det ett effektivt diskussionsunderlag som kan användas till planering inom det aktuella projektet. För att en implementering och ett fortsatt arbete av 3D och 4D APD-planering ska lyckas, krävs det att organisationerna skapar sig rätt förutsättningar genom att lägga tid och resurser för att etablera en stark kompetens som kan forma ett arbetssätt med APD-planering i 3D och 4D. / During the design phase, a construction site layout plan (CSL-plan) is developed, serving as an overview illustration of the construction site. This plan visualizes the buildings on site and indicates where, among other things such as material storage areas, transport routes, and site offices are located. Currently, 2D drawings are the most frequently used type of CSL-plans. Additional dimensions can be incorporated into an CSL-plan; this study examines the subsequent dimensions: volume (3D) and time (4D). The aim is to analyze the challenges, opportunities, and value that a 3D and 4D APD-plan can offer, and how knowledge and accessibility can be enhanced to encourage greater use of 3D and 4D CSL-planning. This study employs a qualitative approach with seven in-depth interviews. The results suggest that 3D and 4D CSL-planning using various software tools provides a clear, realistic representation of the construction site. This allows risks and errors to be identified at an early stage. Through simulation linked to the schedule, it also becomes an effective discussion framework for project planning. For successful implementation and continued use of 3D and 4D CSL-planning, organizations must create the right conditions by investing time and resources to build strong competencies that can establish an effective workflow with 3D and 4D CSL-planning.

In general, the improper disposal of waste may hinder the constitutional guarantee of a right to an environment to human health or well-being. This is especially true of domestic solid waste, a particular area of the waste stream frequently disposed of on South Africa's vacant land, rivers and streets amongst other. There is need therefore for municipalities as locally based authorities that are constitutionally bestowed with specific functions and duties in relation to waste, to ensure effective domestic solid waste management. The aim of this study is to investigate the content and design of some legal instruments aimed at domestic solid waste management in two municipalities of South Africa’s Limpopo Province namely the Lephalale and Greater Tzaneen Municipalities. The investigation and critical analysis of the selected instruments are based on the content of South Africa’s national waste law and policy with respect to domestic solid waste management specifically. The study concludes with a number of observations and recommendations with respect to the investigation instrumentation of Lephalale and Greater Tzaneen Municipalities. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In general, the improper disposal of waste may hinder the constitutional guarantee of a right to an environment to human health or well-being. This is especially true of domestic solid waste, a particular area of the waste stream frequently disposed of on South Africa's vacant land, rivers and streets amongst other. There is need therefore for municipalities as locally based authorities that are constitutionally bestowed with specific functions and duties in relation to waste, to ensure effective domestic solid waste management. The aim of this study is to investigate the content and design of some legal instruments aimed at domestic solid waste management in two municipalities of South Africa’s Limpopo Province namely the Lephalale and Greater Tzaneen Municipalities. The investigation and critical analysis of the selected instruments are based on the content of South Africa’s national waste law and policy with respect to domestic solid waste management specifically. The study concludes with a number of observations and recommendations with respect to the investigation instrumentation of Lephalale and Greater Tzaneen Municipalities. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014