This is a comparative case study of income maintenance policy formation involving six economically underdeveloped countries, i.e. Bolivia, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Ghana, Mauritius, Thailand and the United Arab Republic (now Egypt). The major questions raised are: what are the types of income maintenance programs in the selected countries?; are there specific factors associated with the adoption of those programs? If so, what are they?; and what are the conditions, if any, under which certain factors may become active in association with the program types? In this study, the income maintenance program was defined as a body of statutory measures designed to help assure a minimum income for selected or all sectors of population through direct transfers of cash or benefit-in-kind. The specific program components examined were food subsidies, public education, public health, demogrants, modified negative tax and public assistance in the non-occupational sector and social insurance, provident fund, corporative profit-sharing and subsidized commissary in the occupational sector. For the purpose of cross-national analysis, four basic program types determined by the level of pertinent expenditures, the number and type of components involved, population coverage and the relative balance between occupational and non-occupational components were delineated and employed. In addition to exploring the substantive questions, this study attempted to formulate a conceptual model which may be useful for future studies in terms of defining the problem, generating hypotheses and comparing the findings of one study with those of another. The basic problem of the study relates to theories of choice in the social field. The selection criteria of the study settings were: the level of economy as represented by per capita income (US $137-157 and US $209-211 brackets), the income maintenance program variation and data availability. This study covers various historical junctures of the post World War II period, usually coinciding with the life span of one government in each country. In one country only (Mauritius) a period of nearly 20 years was covered because the evolvement of the income maintenance program in that country took that long. Of existing theories and hypotheses of public policy, the study findings generally support a political one, particularly those involving the political self-interest theory of Anthony Downs, Theodore Riker, Daniel Ellsberg and others. This, however, does not rule out the secondary or conditional significance of non-political factors such as needs, resources, economic context, demography, technical assistance, socio-cultural and institutional factors and external factors. The overall concept of income maintenance policy determination emerging from the study findings as a whole is represented by a systems model distinguished by politico-kinetic dynamics among all the underlying factors. In this model, the policy-making environment is envisaged as a kinetic field in which the movements of and the relationships between all underlying factors of income maintenance policies are controlled by a shifting balance of forces among political factors, such as pressure group influence, power requisites of political leadership, the leadership orientation and commitment, ideology, and so on. These political factors are conceived to change not only in their relative strengths but also in their aims or directions, and thus cause modifications in the income maintenance program. With the changes in the controlling factors and their relationships, the non-political factors are regarded to change also in terms of their relative strengths and dispositions in relation to the political factors as well as in relation to one another, thus undergoing changes in their powers of influence upon the program. The pattern of inter-factor relationships represented in the model is regarded to hold at any given moment in time as well as over a period of time. The conceptual model that best embodies the above dynamics among the underlying factors may appropriately be termed a politico-kinetic paradigm.

This thesis uses a contextual case study approach covering the period 1985 to 2011 to examine the construction of Trinidad and Tobago's ICT4D policy as discourse. The guiding theory of method is contextualism as described in Pettigrew (1990), according to whom a contextual analysis can be characterised as: processual, by emphasising the evolution of actions embedded in specific contexts (structural and otherwise) over time; multi-stakeholder, by recognising the competing viewpoints of reality perceived by actors at different levels; longitudinal, by considering both historical and contemporary views of actions and events. Consistent with this approach a framework has been adopted here that views policy as an iterative process involving the generation of texts from events, the translation of texts into narratives, and competition between alternative narratives resulting in institutions, which, in turn, enable and constrain events. This framework facilitates understanding interactions between actors at multiple levels across time. There are three original contributions to knowledge made in this thesis. Firstly, I have proposed an analytical framework that integrates three separate bodies of literature. The discursive model of institutionalization of Phillips, Lawrence and Hardy (2004) and the ‘policy as discourse' approach of Shaw & Greenhalgh (2008) and Shaw (2010) are integrated by way of a bridge, the ‘trading zones' concept of Galison (1997) as extended by Collins, Evans, & Gorman (2007). Thereby, I developed a series of analytical constructs that can be used for contextual policy research, especially in developing countries where dominant policy narratives constrain and moderate discursive exchange when those policy narratives - which were originally articulated in advanced economies - are subsequently transferred into developing countries. Secondly, I have empirically applied the framework to the study of ICT4D policy construction in Trinidad and Tobago, generating new insights in the process. In so doing I critically examined the process of constructing policy as discourse with the aim of identifying ways in which policy could be done differently. A key finding is that the process of discursively transferring previously existing policy narratives into new contexts can result in one of three outcomes: no change - if the introduction of policy narratives had no impact whatsoever on institutions (either by creating new ones, or disrupting existing ones); the construction of policy pidgins (semi-specific yet incomplete proto-languages that mediate discursive transfer) - when discursive transfer, imitation and assemblage of narratives partially occurs; or the construction of policy creoles (full-fledged languages that facilitate not only discursive transfer, but social action) - if the discursive transfer is complemented by translation, editing and social embedding. Thirdly, I developed a model of policy creolization through which the two main factors that influence the emergence of policy pidgins and, eventually, policy creoles (both viewed as particular forms of institutions) in a setting of discursive construction were identified, namely:  The length of the temporal window over which policy actors have an opportunity to develop interactional expertise to transfer, imitate and assemble narratives, and eventually to translate, edit and embed those narratives into social actions;  The degree of intentionality of the discursive action, and subsequently the social action, that policy actors engage in, noting that there are three categories of social action: o Intentional action – which deliberately conveys particular ideas through texts. o Consequential action – which is generated as a by-product of ongoing dialogue among actors during which they may draw on broader narratives. o Emergent action – which arises through discursive contestation and struggle in ways that were not necessarily intended or predicted. This highlights that both intentionality and time are required to bridge the knowledge gaps present between the different contexts, and even so, that the policy construction process in the new context requires practitioners to develop non-trivial levels of interactional expertise. This thesis has implications for policy practice on two fronts. Firstly, the framework can be employed to assist policymakers in creating policy creoles through coordination and interaction between external mainstream narratives and alternative narratives, including those that are locally derived. In doing so, policymakers and policy analysts can unpack the conceptual constructions of their subject domain, learn how to engage with new domains (and thereby gain interactional expertise) and uncover the latent power dynamics that are reinforced by lack of critical analysis. Secondly, application of the framework provides a means of assessing institutional dynamics. This is important because of the powerful normative, cognitive and regulative functions institutions play on the development of new institutions, and ultimately on social action.

Wong Ho. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-66). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.4 / Chapter 2 --- Data Descrition --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1 --- Definition and Notation of Some Key Variables --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2 --- Summary statistics --- p.12 / Chapter 3 --- Determinants of Annual Changes in Leverage --- p.18 / Chapter 4 --- Determinants of Leverage --- p.33 / Chapter 5 --- Summary and Conclusions --- p.41 / Chapter 6 --- Tables / Chapter 6.1 --- Table 1.1 to 1.6 --- p.43 / Chapter 6.2 --- Table 2 --- p.49 / Chapter 6.3 --- Table 3.1 to3.6 --- p.52 / References --- p.64

Buildings are one of the major consumers of energy and make up a considerable portion in the generation of greenhouse gases. Green roofs are regarded as an appropriate strategy to reduce the heating and cooling loads in buildings. However, their energy performance is influenced by different design parameters which should be optimized based on the corresponding climate zone. Previous investigations mainly analyzed various design parameters in a single climate zone. However, the interaction of parameters in different climate zones was not considered. Also, the studies have been conducted mostly for commercial or residential buildings. Among different building types, schools with large roof surface are one of the major consumers of energy in North America. However, the literature review shows the lack of study on the effect of green roof on the thermal and energy performance of this type of building. This study performs a comprehensive parametric analysis to evaluate the influence of the green roof design parameters on the thermal or energy performance of a secondary school building in four climate zones in North America (i.e. Toronto, ON; Vancouver, BC; Las Vegas, NV and Miami, FL). Soil moisture content, soil thermal properties, leaf area index, plant height, leaf albedo, thermal insulation thickness and soil thickness were used as variables. Optimal parameters of green roofs were found to be closely related to meteorological conditions in each city. In terms of energy savings, the results show that the light substrate has better thermal performance for the uninsulated green roof. Also, the recommended soil thickness and leaf area index in the four cities are 0.15 m and 5, respectively. The optimal plant height for the cooling dominated climates is 0.3 m and for the heating dominated cities are 0.1 m. The plant albedo had the least impact on the energy consumption while it is effective in mitigation effect of heat island effect. Finally, unlike the cooling load which is largely influenced by the substrate and vegetation, the heating load is considerably affected by the thermal insulation instead of green roof design parameters. / Graduate

Estudou-se a prática do aleitamento materno nas mulheres com filhos menores de três anos de idade, na população de Icapara, Município de Iguape, Estado de São Paulo. Procurou-se determinar, entre as famílias selecionadas, a frequência e duração dos tipos de aleitamento do último filho, no primeiro ano de vida. Em seguida, fez-se um estudo comparativo do aleitamento do primeiro e último filhos nas mesmas famílias. Com a finalidade de situar a prática do aleitamento materno num contexto social, caracterizou-se sócio-economicamente a população estudada, privilegiando-se as atividades ocupacionais. A técnica de pesquisa empregada foi o formulário aplicado aos pais. Concluiu-se que no primeiro ano de vida, o aleitamento materno total é frequente e prolongado, enquanto que o aleitamento materno exclusivo é frequente apenas em torno do período neo-natal. O aleitamento artificial apresenta-se com frequências ascendentes, atingindo-se mais da metade das crianças ao final do período. O aleitamento misto aparece com frequências variáveis, cedendo lugar ao aleitamento materno exclusivo em torno do período neo-natal e ao aleitamento artificial na forma exclusiva, no primeiro ano de vida. Verificou-se que as frequências de aleitamento materno são, em geral, mais baixas nos último filho do que nos primogênitos. / The breast-feeding practice among women with children under 3 years of age in the population of Vila de Icapara, Iguape County, State of São Paulo, was studied. The author tried to determine the rate of occurrence and duration of different types of feeding offered to the last child of the selected families, in his first year of life. A comparative study between the feeding of the first and the last child in the same family was also carried out. In order to situate the breast-feeding practice within a social context, the chosen population was social and economically studied taking into consideration especially occupational activities. A questionnaire was applied as the researdh technique. The author concluded that, total breast-feeding is frequent and prolonged in the child\'s first year of life, while the exclusive breast-feeding is frequent only during the neo-natal period. The bottle-feeding presents a increasing occurence totalizing more than half of the children up to 1 (one) year of age. The mixed feeding varies giving ground to the exclusive breast-feeding during the neo-natal period, and to bottle-feeding (exclusively) during the child\'s first year of life.

Xie, Zhenchang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-50). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / Table of Contents --- p.v / List of Figures --- p.vi / List of Tables --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Development of fiber optic networks --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Optical transmission system --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- The motivation of this thesis --- p.7 / Chapter 1.4 --- Outline of this thesis --- p.8 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- The Consolidation of Two Coexisting Networks with Full-Interconnection --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1 --- Assumptions and problem formulation --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2 --- Definitions and notations --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3 --- An algorithm to derive Lmin --- p.13 / Chapter 2.4 --- Example illustrations --- p.17 / Chapter 2.5 --- "The number of fiber links required over the number of nodes of a network, L/N" --- p.21 / Chapter 2.6 --- Summary --- p.22 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- The Consolidation of Two Coexisting Networks with Two Interconnection Links --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1 --- Assumptions --- p.24 / Chapter 3.2 --- Analysis on the optimal location of the two interconnection links --- p.25 / Chapter 3.3 --- Notations --- p.25 / Chapter 3.4 --- Theorems and corollaries --- p.25 / Chapter 3.5 --- "The number of fiber links required over the number of nodes of a network, L/N" --- p.35 / Chapter 3.6 --- Summary --- p.36 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Protection of the Consolidated Network --- p.37 / Chapter 4.1 --- Full-interconnection case --- p.38 / Chapter 4.2 --- Two interconnection case --- p.39 / Chapter 4.3 --- Summary --- p.44 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Summary and Future Works --- p.45 / Chapter 5.1 --- Summary --- p.45 / Chapter 5.2 --- Future works --- p.47 / Bibliography --- p.48 / Appendix ´ؤ List of publications --- p.52

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La presente investigación se titula: “El Programa Nacional de Formación y Capacitación Permanente y el nivel de satisfacción de los docentes en Lima Metropolitana, 2008 – II”, efectuada durante el año del 2009 a una muestra probabilística de 323, elegida al 95% de confianza y un margen de error del 0.05% de una población de 2000 docentes que han sido capacitados por el PRONAFCAP en virtud a un convenio con las universidades Nacional mayor de San Marcos, Cayetano Heredia, Pontificia Católica del Perú y el Instituto Superior Pedagógico Monterrico. Es una investigación que corresponde al tipo de estudio básico en razón que sus resultados enriquecen el conocimiento científico en educación. Es de nivel descriptivo y asume el diseño correlacional, en razón que establece una relación lineal entre las variables: Formación y capacitación docente, y el nivel de satisfacción de los docentes, respecto a la calidad de capacitación que han recibido como parte del mejoramiento continuo de la calidad de la educación básica mediante la profesionalización de sus docentes. Se aplicó la técnica de la encuesta para observar ambas variables y los instrumentos han sido sometidos a una prueba piloto con 12 docentes para determinar la confiabilidad mediante el alfa de Cronbach, cuyo resultado arroja un coeficiente de 0,979 para el primer instrumento (Formación y capacitación docente) y de 0,974 para el segundo instrumento (Nivel de satisfacción de los docentes). Las tablas de frecuencias se han elaborado con el programa Excell y analizados descriptivamente; en tanto, la prueba de hipótesis se efectuó con el coeficiente de correlación de Pearson (r). Los resultados de la investigación demuestran una relación estadísticamente significativa de r = 0.877 (donde p: menor de 0,01) y a una probabilidad de certeza del 99%, entre la formación y capacitación por el Programa Nacional de Formación y Capacitación (PRONAFCAP) y la satisfacción sobre la capacitación de los docentes durante el año 2009. / This research is entitled "The National Training and Continuing Education and the satisfaction level of teachers in Metropolitan Lima, 2008 - II", made during the year 2009 at a probability sample of 323, chosen at 95% confidence and a margin of error of 0.05% of a population of 2000 teachers have been trained by the PRONAFCAP under an agreement with the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Cayetano Heredia, Pontificia Catolica del Peru and the Pedagogical Institute Monterrico. It is an investigation that is the type of basic study because its results enrich scientific knowledge in education. It bears the descriptive level and correlational design, because it establishes a linear relationship between variables: training and teacher training, and the satisfaction level of teachers regarding the quality of training they have received as part of continuous improvement quality basic education through the professionalization of the teachers. Technique was used to observe both the survey variables and the instruments were pilot-tested with 12 teachers to ascertain the reliability by Cronbach's alpha, which results yield a coefficient of 0.979 for the first instrument (Training and Teacher Training ) and 0.974 for the second instrument (Level of satisfaction of teachers). The frequency tables were drawn up with the Excel program and analyzed descriptively, meanwhile, hypothesis testing was performed with the Pearson correlation coefficient (r). The research results show a statistically significant relationship of r = 0.877 (where p less than 0.01) and a probability of 99% certainty, between the education and training by the National Program of Education and Training (PRONAFCAP) and satisfaction on the training of teachers in 2009. / Tesis

In the Portland Metropolitan area, a wide range of programs and facilities, including informal arrangements, are used for the care of children outside their homes during some part of the day. These programs and facilities include those whose primary purpose is child development, education, or recreation (Headstart, Parent and Child Centers, Nursery Schools, Kindergartens, Extended School Services, and Play School). They also include day care provided by non-profit organizations such as churches and hospitals by private proprietory day care operators and independent family day care homes, and by employers and labor unions in addition to cooperatives. These programs involve a large number of personnel of diversified backgrounds and training. They include professionals, paraprofessionals and nonprofessionals. These programs need to be classified in order to facilitate sound planning and development of training programs to meet the needs of such manpower. For purposes of this study, they were viewed as constituting a social system. The emphasis was on the staff working directly with children. In addition to the operators or directors in charge of most facilities, day care centers have at least one other staff member who works directly with children. These include teachers and social workers. The objectives of the study were to describe the manpower elements in the day care centers and to ascertain training needs and present modes of agency training activities. It was expected to develop a training proposal to meet the needs of the manpower elements identified in the day care centers; if it was so determined by the results of the survey