Eismo įvykių tyrimas yra labai aktuali tema tiek teoriniu, tiek praktiniu požiūriu. Lietuva pagal eismo įvykių skaičių yra pirmaujanti Europos Sąjungos valstybė. Žvelgiant Lietuvos mastu, Klaipėdos apskritis padaromų eismo įvykių skaičiumi jau kurį laiką taip pat yra lyderiaujančiose pozicijose. Eismo įvykių skaičiumi ją lenkia tik Vilniaus ir Kauno apskritys. Šiame darbe yra nagrinėjami kriminalistiniai ikiteisminio tyrimo, atliekamo dėl eismo įvykių aspektai. Jame yra pateikiama teisinė nusikalstamų veikų eismo saugumui charakteristika, kriminalistinė eismo įvykių charakteristika, analizuojami ikiteisminio tyrimo veiksmai, atliekami tiriant baudžiamąsias bylas dėl eismo įvykių Klaipėdos apskrityje. Nagrinėjamos teorinės ir praktinės problemos, su kuriomis susiduria pareigūnai ir tarnautojai, ikiteisminio tyrimo eigoje. Darbe nurodomi pagrindiniai ikiteisminio tyrimo veiksmai eismo įvykių bylose, detalizuojama šių veiksmų metodika ir taktika. Pagrindinė darbo išvada – pasenusi eismo įvykių tyrimo metodika yra nepritaikyta prie pasikeitusios ikiteisminio tyrimo koncepcijos įtvirtintos naujajame baudžiamojo proceso kodekse. Nėra atliktų šios srities kompleksinių tyrimų, o tai iš dalies neigiamai atliliepia eismo įvykių tyrimo praktikai. Nėra suformuotos vienodos eismo įvykių tyrimo praktikos. / Traffic accidents investigation is very topical so in theoretical and utilitarian attitude. Lithuania according to number of road traffic accidents is leading European Union state. View Lithuanian extent, Klaipeda district is in leading posture with number of road traffic accidents. Just Vilnius and Kaunas district overtake Klaipeda district with it’s number of road traffic accidents. In this work is criticizing criminal by judicial investigation, experimented because of traffic accidents, aspects. In it is presenting legal criminal actions for traffic safety characterization, criminal traffic accidents characterization, treating by judicial investigation actions, experiment analyzing the prosecutions because of traffic accidents in Klaipeda district. It is criticizing theoretical and utilitarian problems, with which collide officers and staff, in proceedings of by judicial investigation. In the work directed the main by judicial investigation actions in traffic accidents files, detailing this action method and tactics. The main work conclusion – dated traffic accidents investigation’s method is not adapted on changed by judicial investigation competence, established in new criminal process code. It is not performed this realm complex investigations, that partly negatively tell on traffic accidents investigation practice. There is not shaped the same traffic accidents investigation practice.

Local government, as government at grassroot, has, probably undergone transformation more than any institution in post-1994 South Africa. State-of the- art legislation have been passed that have restructured municipalities, and, especially, in the areas of performance and conduct of councillors and officials. Prominent in the areas of transformation are the roles of the Executive Mayor, which are no longer ceremonial as well as the radical changes which have been legislated in municipal financial management. This study was undertaken to determine the challenges that confront the Executive Mayor in financial management in selected local municipalities in the Free State. The hypothesis was formulated that “despite the state-of-the art legislation to regulate municipal finance, Executive Mayors in municipalities face the challenge of poor service delivery as a result of noncompliance to financial statutes due to human resource incapacity”. To test the hypothesis, use was made by empirical research that comprised questionnaires completed by sample of managers and officials in the selected local municipalities of Mafube, Metsimaholo, Moqhaka and Ngwathe.The findings, amongst others, were that: • Human capital in the 4 selected local municipalities are in their prime age. 69 present of managers are in the aged between 30 years to 50 years; • 57 present of the managers responded that they have adequate qualifications and training to pursue the challenges in municipal finance; • All 4 municipalities normally get their budgets approved as required by compliance. • The hypothesis was consequently, invalidated. The study ends with recommendations to help improve standards and quality of financial management practice in the 4 municipalities. / MA (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

The overall aims of this PhD were to examine what the real effects of injury are on survivors of road crashes and to explore the methods used to assess these effects. Three studies were conducted for this thesis to explore the effects of injury using quality of life outcomes for survivors of road crashes. Study 1 was a prospective follow-up study of 70 road crash survivors with relatively 'minor' injuries. The aim of study 1 was to determine the effects of the crash or injury on quality of life for a 'minor' injury sample over a 1 year follow-up period. Study 2 was a prospective follow-up study of 50 'seriously' injured road crash survivors admitted to hospital as a result of their injuries. Study 3 incorporated the results of study 1 and study 2 to examine the societal burden of injury.

Accidental injury is a common experience for children (ABS, 2004-2005), yet the debilitating psychological effects of the trauma event often go undetected and thus not treated. Whilst for many the accident will result in some distress, many children will naturally recover and move on (Bryant, 2004). In spite of this, 10-18% of children will continue to experience persistent chronic stress symptoms for up to 2 years post accident (Le Brocque, Hendrikz, & Kenardy, 2009). Unfortunately, little psychological assistance is available or offered to children that may assist in their psychological recovery and even prevent the significant and debilitating effects of psychological distress. Therefore, the aim of this research was to develop and investigate an intervention for children following accidental injury. This was carried out via three stages and presented as three sections within the thesis. Section 1 aimed to develop a theory driven and evidenced-based intervention. Firstly, a meta-analysis was conducted to identify potential risk factors of significance that predict post-traumatic stress symptoms. This analysis resulted in pre-trauma psychopathology, threat to life, gender (female) and parental distress being relatively strong and consistent predictors. This information helps inform potential screening tools as well as directly guidinge the development of the intervention for this thesis. Secondly, this section conducted a comprehensive literature review of relevant approaches and interventions to help guide the development of the intervention. This review drew on models of traumatic stress development such as the Resilience Framework (Kumpfer, 1999), and Paediatric Medical Traumatic Stress (Kazak et al., 2006) as well as preventative frameworks such as the Paediatric Psychosocial Preventative Health Model (Kazak, 2006) that resulted in a Universal approach being argued as the most appropriate. Following this, a review was conducted of relevant universal preventative interventions currently available or recommended following trauma including, Psychological Debriefing (PD), Psychological First Aid (PFA) and information provision. Overall it was concluded that an information provision intervention that drew on strategies used within PD and PFA (such as normalisation and coping strategies) was the most appropriate and practical approach to offering psychological assistance to children and their parents following accidental injury. Finally, this section culminated in a chapter outlining the design, delivery and content of the intervention. The intervention developed aimed to normalise reactions and enhance coping in children following the accident whilst providing parents with accurate information regarding trauma reactions and how they could assist their child’s emotional recovery. Of importance was the decision to place the child’s intervention on the internet. It was argued that this would offer a more child friendly medium and provide greater and easier access for families. Section 2 encompassed the evaluation of the intervention developed. Children (7-16years) and their parents were recruited from the Royal Children’s Hospital and their trauma reactions were assessed over a 6 month period, with three assessment time points; Time 1 (baseline, within 1-2 weeks of the accident), Time 2 (4-6 weeks) and Time 3 (6 months). Children and their parents were randomised into the intervention group following Time 1. Analyses revealed that children within the intervention group reported significantly decreased anxiety, in comparison to a worsening of symptoms for children in the control group. No significant group differences were noted for the parents. Exploratory analysis conducted on high risk children (those with high initial distress) revealed that those in the control group exhibited a significant worsening of anxiety and social phobias over the 6 months. This significant increase in symptoms was not noted for children who had received the intervention. Furthermore, exploratory analyses revealed that children who initially reported high symptoms were the ones most likely to find the intervention helpful and effective. This result was exhibited in the qualitative responses from the parents and children. Overall, the intervention showed promise and encouraging results in its ability to aid child recovery. Furthermore, the results indicated that high risk children may benefit over and above all those recruited suggested the possible appropriateness for a stepped care approach. Section 3 was conducted in light of the results of Section 2, suggesting that children with high initial distress may benefit more greatly from the intervention compared to those with low initial distress. Therefore, this section examined a number of risk factors identified via the meta-analysis conducted in Section 1, to examine whether they would moderate a child’s and parent’s trauma symptoms following treatment compared with no treatment. Thus, this section investigated whether the intervention would be best delivered universally or targeted at children and parents who exhibited certain risk factors. Results indicated that when the child risk factors of initial child distress, attribution of self-blame and parental psychopathology were present, children in the control group had significantly higher trauma symptoms in comparison to those in the intervention. When these factors were not present, there were no significant group differences. For parents, their initial post-accident depression, anxiety and stress levels moderated treatment; in that when it was not present (low) there were no group differences, however when the risk factors was present (high) those in the control group exhibited significantly higher mood disturbances at 6 months. The findings of this section resulted in the conclusion that there are a number of risk factors that impact or influence treatment, thus suggesting that the intervention could be best utilised when targeted at those presenting with risk factors. Therefore, this research developed, investigated and optimised a universal preventative intervention for children and their parents following accidental injury. The limitations and implications for this research are discussed, including debate regarding a universal versus a targeted approach to intervention delivery.

This thesis represents my research work relating to rugby union from 2000 to 2007. During this time I was the Manager of Injury Prevention and Research for the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU). The main priorities of this role were to increase understanding of risk factors for rugby injury, to implement preventive measures, and to assess the effect of those preventive measures. The thesis is presented as a series of peer-reviewed, published papers. A key concern of the NZRU when I undertook the role was to decrease the number and severity of spinal cord injuries occurring in New Zealand rugby. The first paper is a review of literature of rugby union injuries to the cervical spine and spinal cord. This paper was published in Sports Medicine, and the knowledge derived there from formed an important element in RugbySmart, which was the nationwide injury prevention partnership between the NZRU and ACC. The second paper, which was published in the British Medical Journal, outlines the effect of RugbySmart on serious spinal injuries in New Zealand. Eight spinal injuries occurred in New Zealand in 2001-2005, whereas the predicted number based on previous incidence was 19 (relative rate 0.46, 95% confidence interval 0.19 to 1.14). The main reason for the decline was a decrease in the number of injuries from scrums, from a predicted number of nine only one was observed (relative rate 0.11; 0.02 to 0.74). Injury prevention initiatives in New Zealand appear to have been successful in areas beyond spinal injuries. The third paper deals with the effect of RugbySmart in general. RugbySmart was associated with a decrease in injury claims per 100,000 players in most areas the programme targeted; the programme had negligible impact on non-targeted injury sites. The decrease in injury claims numbers was supported by results from player behaviour surveys pre- and post-RugbySmart. There was an increase in safe behaviour in the contact situations of tackle, scrum and ruck technique. The fourth paper, which was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, examines the effect of mandating mouth guard usage on mouth guard wearing rates and ACC dental injury claim rates. The self reported rate of mouth guard use was 67% of player-weeks in 1993 and 93% in 2003. A total of 2644 claims were reported in 1995. There was a 43% (90% confidence interval 39% to 46%) reduction in dental claims from 1995 to 2003. On the reasonable assumption that the number of players and player-matches remained constant throughout the study period, the relative rate of injury claims for non-wearers versus wearers was 4.6 (90% confidence interval 3.8 to 5.6). In New Zealand the tackle is the facet of play associated number of injuries, and over the past decade tackles have overtaken scrums as the cause of the greatest proportion of spinal injuries. To address the lack of knowledge regarding risk factors for injuries in the tackle, a large scale study of tackles in professional rugby matches was undertaken. In 434 matches, over 140,000 tackles were coded. The impact of the tackle was the most common cause of injury, and the head was the most common site, but an important mechanism of lower limb injuries was loading with the weight of another player. Rates of replacement increased with increasing player speed. The resulting paper was published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. A commonly cited model of injury causation in sport posits that risk factors for injury can be considered as those related to the athlete (intrinsic) and those related to the activity (extrinsic). To examine the extent to which the activities comprising rugby matches at the international level has changed over time the first match in each Bledisloe Cup series from 1972 to 2004 was coded. Increases in passes, tackles, rucks, tries, and ball-in-play time were associated with the advent of professionalism, whereas there were reductions in the numbers of lineouts, mauls, kicks in play, and in mean participation time per player. Noteworthy time trends were an increase in the number of rucks and a decrease in the number of scrums. With the advent of professionalism, players have become heavier and backs have become taller. A number of articles written to communicate injury prevention messages to rugby union coaches, players and administrators are presented as appendices, along with two peer reviewed papers that closely relate to the thesis, but which I excluded from the thesis proper.

The health system in Australia delivers safe and effective health care to millions of patients each year. However, health care is not as safe as it could be with research indicating that errors involving medications are a leading cause of unintended harm to patients both in Australia and internationally. Historically, hospital authorities have attempted to reduce incidents by focusing on the actions of individuals. However, the health system is now taking advantage of research carried out in other complex industries which indicates that error is inevitable and that identifying individuals as the ultimate cause of adverse incidents is of limited value unless the context in which the incident occurred is well understood. This series of studies used Reason's (1990) model of accident causation as the basis for the search into possible contributing factors to unsafe behaviour by nurses during medication administration. Structural equation modelling was used to operationalise Reason's theory by developing a model linking organisational and individual factors to unsafe behaviour in the hospital system. Study 1 in this series was a preliminary investigation of the role of organisational factors in contributing to violations by nurses in rural and remote areas in Queensland, Australia. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire with this instrument being used to develop a structural model wherein organisational variables predicted 23% of the variance in self-reported violations. Study 2 extended the number of organisational factors measured by using a validated instrument that is widely used in public sector hospitals in Queensland. This instrument measures organisational climate and also a number of individual factors. In addition to the outcome variable, violation behaviour, a measure of errors was included. Data were collected from nurses working in two rural health service districts. A structural model was developed from this instrument wherein organisational variables predicted 7% of the variance in selfreported violations and 24% of the variance in errors. The hypothesised relationships between the individual factors and errors were not supported in this study. Study 3 investigated the impact of individual factors and a specific type of organisational climate, that is, safety climate on unsafe behaviour. The violation behaviour and error scales were extended and improved in this study, for example, the error scale was expanded to include near misses. In addition, a new scale measuring reporting behaviour was developed and included. Data were collected from nurses working in a large rural centre. The structural model developed from the instrument indicated that safety climate predicted 27% of the variance in violation behaviour, 61% of the variance in errors and near misses, and 20% of the variance in willingness to report. This series of studies identified underlying contributing factors to unsafe behaviour during medication administration, indicated the strength of the relationships among the various elements, and illustrated how the various parts of the system link together to influence safety outcomes. By identifying which elements are important by the use of structural equation modelling, this research provides the basis for predicting unsafe organisational conditions and leads to suggestions for suitably targeted interventions to reduce unsafe behaviour and adverse incidents.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2005. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2005. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Edith Cowan University, 2006. / Submitted to the Faculty of Computing, Health and Science. Includes bibliographical references.