Though there has been a considerable amount of work investigating the early stages of low-mass star formation in recent years, the general theory is only broadly understood and several open questions remain. Specifically, the dominant physical mechanisms which connect large-scale molecular cloud structures, intermediate-scale filamentary gas flows, and small-scale collapsing prestellar envelopes in the interstellar medium are poorly constrained. Even for an individual forming protostar, the evolution of the mass accretion rate from the envelope onto the central object is debated with little observational evidence to help guide the theoretical framework. In addition, with the development of new technology such as the continuum imaging instrument in operation at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), the Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA-2), the best practices for data reduction and image calibration for ground-based, submillimetre wavelength observations are still being investigated. In this dissertation, I address facets of these open questions in five main projects with an overarching focus on the flow of material from the largest to the smallest scales in a molecular cloud. By performing synthetic observations of a numerical simulation of a turbulent molecular cloud, I investigate the nature of prestellar envelopes and find evidence of larger mass reservoirs that form filamentary structures and feed cluster formation. Then, after robustly investigating and suggesting improvements for ground-based, submillimetre data reduction techniques, I continue to probe the connection between larger and smaller scales by characterising structure fragmentation in the Southern Orion A Molecular Cloud from the perspective of 850 m continuum data. Finally, I follow star forming material to even smaller scales by exploring the evolution of the mass accretion rate onto individual protostars. This examination has required designing and implementing unprecedented spatial alignment and flux calibration techniques at 850 m. Using these newly calibrated images, I am able to identify several candidate sources that show evidence for submillimetre variability, suggesting changes in protostellar accretion rates over several year timescales. / Graduate

Recent observations at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and elsewhere have identified a class of very deeply embedded, possibly protostellar, sources which are not associated with any of the traditional indicators of star formation, such as HII regions and near-infrared emission, but which do lie close to otherwise isolated H2O masers. This thesis describes a search, based on catalogues of known water maser positions, for new deeply embedded cores similar to those found in S106 and M17. In addition to millimetre molecular line and submillimetre continuum observations, 22 GHz and 8 GHz radio observations have been made of a number of the sources in order to obtain more accurate maser positions and to search for any associated compact HII regions. Observing sources such as these in less active star forming regions provides a cleaner environment in which to examine the maser excitation and the ongoing process of star formation. A sample of 44 water maser sources was observed from which submillimetre continuum emission was detected from 40 (91 per cent). The most striking feature of the data is the close association of the masers with the submillimetre cores: the data are consistent with masers occurring within 6000 AU of the embedded core. The results can be summarised as follows: o High temperature gas has been detected, and most of the submillimetre cores have mean densities greater than 10^6 /cm^3. o The masers have low velocities with respect to the molecular cloud and are uniformly distributed within 6600 AU of the submillimetre core. o The isotropic maser luminosity is proportional to the far-infrared luminosity over more than 5 orders of magnitude. o There is no obvious correlation between the near-infrared spectral class and the maser emission. o Where a radio spectral index is known the majority of sources are optically thin HII regions. The bulk of the remainder are undetected and have a flux density less than 1 mJy. o Masers not associated directly with a submillimetre core show explicit evidence for shocks. Embedded cores \emph{have} been detected with this survey and the maser emission is consistent with collisionally excited pump models.

In the wake of budgetary restraints, many local government organizations are examining existing sources of revenue to exhaust available streams without increasing constituents' financial burden. Some of these revenue streams include nontraditional sources, such as traffic citations, yet little research has explored the implications of revenue generated from fines from traffic citations. Using the theory of resource dependence as the foundation, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the estimated population of the county, the unemployment rate of the county, and the personal income per capita against the number of traffic citations issued and the Florida Clerk of Court and Comptroller's (FCCC) revenues and budget attributable to traffic citations for 39 of Florida's counties for the years 2005-¬ - 2014. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analyses. The results of this study indicate a statistically significant (p < .001) relationship between population and personal income with increases and decreases, respectively, in the issuance of traffic citations and FCCC revenues attributable to traffic citations. Likewise, there was a statistically significant (p < .001) relationship between population and personal income with increases in the FCCC budget associated with traffic citations. Unemployment rate was not statistically associated with the issuance of traffic citations, and FCCC revenues and budget attributable to traffic citations. The findings of this study may promote positive social change by providing legislative awareness that the FCCCs continue to be dependent on the bulk of their revenues, and significant portion of their budget, from a nontraditional revenue source; the traffic citation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:38:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CynthiaSDLP.pdf: 630325 bytes, checksum: 4c375d84efd045a9bd6dccff854bf86b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-05-30 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Wich the big transformations at the world of labor, thus as the appearing of the negatives psicologicals consequencies? Publications in books and articles about the health of the workers have been seen in the last 40 years, pointing at the increase of occupational ills, increase of the absenteeism, reach the redation between the labor and the family. With the appearing of the neoliberal sistem, changed all the net of relations, thus as the temporary labor contract, the flexibility at the work timetable, and others, that privilege the capitalism, in detriment of the worker health. It was given emphasis to the banking worker, in time that the banks and the banking agencies were one of the departaments that more suffered the impact of the productive restructuring at the last years. 200 bank clerks shared the search, in that 41,9% was female and 58,1% was male, 60,9% presenting a civil state married, following of 28,4% of single. The participants answered the following instruments: Scale of Positives and Negative Kindness, General Health Questionaire GHQ 12, Scale of Organization, Conditions and Labor Relations, Scale of Desire (own authorship), Scale about economic situation and a social-demographic record car. With the objective of trying the instruments of measure, it was checking the psychometric parameter of the search scales. We could verify that it has been more positive than negative ones for the mental health, but it was found some kind of depression and unsatisfied with their lives in some pieces of the sample. We can finally say that the work place has an impact at the mental health of the bank clerks. So, some interventions actions to promote the worker health could be essential / Com as intensas transforma??es do mundo do trabalho, tal como o advento da reestrutura??o produtiva, os trabalhadores t?m sofrido conseq??ncias psicol?gicas negativas? Publica??es em livros e artigos sobre a sa?de do trabalhador t?m sido destaque nos ?ltimos 40 anos, apontando para o aumento de doen?as ocupacionais, aumento do absente?smo, atingindo a rela??o trabalho-fam?lia. Com o advento do sistema neoliberal, modificou-se toda a rede de rela??es, tais como o contrato de trabalho tempor?rio, a flexibilidade no hor?rio de trabalho, dentre outros, os quais privilegiam o capitalismo, em detrimento da sa?de do trabalhador. Foi dada ?nfase ao trabalhador banc?rio, uma vez que os bancos e ag?ncias banc?rias foram um dos setores que mais sofreu o impacto da reestrutura??o produtiva nos ?ltimos anos. Participaram da pesquisa 200 banc?rios, sendo 41,9% do sexo feminino e 58,1% do sexo masculino, 60,9% apresentando estado civil casado, seguido de 28,4% de solteiros. Os participantes responderam os seguintes instrumentos: Escala de Afetos Positivos e Negativos, Question?rio de Sa?de Geral - QSG-12, Escala de Organiza??o, Condi??es e Rela??es de Trabalho, Escala de Aspira??o (pr?pria autoria), Escala sobre situa??o econ?mica, Escala de Satisfa??o com a Vida, Escala de Reestrutura??oProdutivo-banc?ria e uma ficha s?cio-demogr?fica. Com o objetivo de testar os instrumentos de medida, foram verificados os par?metros psicom?tricos das escalas desta pesquisa. Verificou-se que t?m sido mais positivos que negativos para a sa?de mental, por?m foram encontrados ind?cios de depress?o e insatisfa??o com a vida em parte da amostra. Conclui-se que a o ambiente de trabalho pode ter um impacto na sa?de mental do banc?rio. Assim, a??es de interven??o no sentido de promover a sa?de do trabalhador poder?o ser fundamentadas

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:38:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AnaMSL.pdf: 1004465 bytes, checksum: f27d56ee5460854348d9177af532fced (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-19 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The current study analyses the relation between commitment (focusing on organization, career and syndicate) and the meaning of the work for 123 employees from a bank of mixed economy, crowed in agencies located in the Northeast capitals and also in four capitals out of this region: Belo Horizonte-MG, Bras?lia-DF, Rio de Janeiro-RJ and S?o Paulo-SP. It explores the commitment variability in the work of participants, as well as the score combination in foci, generating the commitment patterns, having used as an instrument a questionnaire consisting: a reduced version of OCQ Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (09 items), which measures the organizational commitment; the reduced Gordon s Scale (10 items), which measures the syndicate commitment; and the Blau s Scale, which measures the commitment to the career/occupation. It speculates, likewise, the meaning of work variability to the sample, seeking for the value attributes (what work should be), descriptive attributes (what work is) and its hierarchy, for which the ISMT-Invent?rio do Significado e Motiva??o no Trabalho has been applied; the work centrality, for which two specific inquires were used. The answers were registered in data at SPSS-Statically Package for Social for Windows, and from this point the statistical analyses were accomplished. Eight commitments to work patterns and six from the meaning of work were identified (Cluster analyses). The relation between both constructs was confirmed, corroborating other studies / O presente estudo examina a associa??o entre o comprometimento em tr?s focos (organiza??o, carreira e sindicato) e o significado atribu?do ao trabalho em 123 funcion?rios de um banco de economia mista, lotados em ag?ncias de capitais do Nordeste e em quatro capitais extra-regionais: Belo Horizonte, Bras?lia, Rio de Janeiro e S?o Paulo. Explora a variabilidade do comprometimento no trabalho dos participantes, bem como, a combina??o dos escores nos focos gerando os padr?es do comprometimento, tendo utilizado como instrumento um question?rio compreendendo: a vers?o reduzida do OCQ Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (09 itens), que mede o comprometimento organizacional; escala reduzida de Gordon (10 itens) que mede o comprometimento com o sindicato; e a escala de Blau (07 itens), que mede o comprometimento com a carreira/profiss?o. Investiga, igualmente, a variabilidade do significado do trabalho para a amostra, buscando conhecer os atributos descritivos e valorativos do significado do trabalho, como tamb?m a hierarquia destes atributos, para tal foi aplicado o ISMT - Invent?rio do Significado e Motiva??o no Trabalho; e a centralidade do trabalho, para a qual foram usadas duas quest?es espec?ficas. As respostas foram registradas em forma de banco de dados SPSS Statistical Package for Social Science for Windows, e a partir da? realizadas as an?lises estat?sticas. Foram identificados 8 padr?es do comprometimento e 6 do significado do trabalho. A associa??o entre os dois construtos foi evidenciada, corroborando estudos anteriores

<p>När ditt företag söker ett lån undersöker banktjänstemannen företagets framtida förmåga att betala räntor och amorteringar på ditt lån, dvs. återbetalningsförmågan. För att avgöra företagets återbetalningsförmåga görs en kreditbedömning vilken grundar sig på hård och mjuk information. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka om våra tre erfarenhetsvariabler: antal år som kreditbedömare, tidigare erfarenhet av företagande och formell utbildning påverkar informationshanteringen under bedömningsprocessen vid kreditgivning till svenska företag. Vi har valt en kvantitativ ansats för att bättre kunna förklara skillnaderna och försöka generalisera. Undersökningen grundar sig på enkätliknande formulär vilka besvaras genom telefonintervjuer. Respondenterna består av företagsrådgivare (kreditbedömare) från de fyra storbankerna: Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB och Swedbank. Urvalet består av respondenter från bankkontor i Västra Götaland, Halland och Skåne. Vår insamlade data består av erfarenhetsvariabler och bedömningskategorier vilka är kodade och analyserad med hjälp av datorprogrammet SPSS. Våra tester resulterade i två signifikanta skillnader mellan erfarenhetsvariabler och bedömningskategorier. Genom detta kunde vi konstatera att stor oenighet råder mellan kreditbedömarna avseende informationshanteringen. Vår uppsats har identifierat två nya erfarenhetsvariabler vilka delvis kan förklara de skillnader som föreligger i informationsbedömningen mellan kreditbedömare vid kreditgivning till svenska företag.</p> / <p>When your company is applying for a loan a bank clerk investigate your company's future ability to meet interest and capital repayments on your loan, ie. repayment ability. In order to determine the company's ability to repay a credit which is based on hard and soft information. The purpose of this essay is to examine if our three experience variables: number of years as a bank clerk, former entrepreneurial experience and formal education affects information management during the assessment process when giving loans to Swedish companies. We have chosen a quantitative approach to better explain the differences and try to generalize. The study is based on survey forms, which is answered by telephone interviews. The respondents consist of business advisers (credit analysts) from the four big Swedish banks: Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB and Swedbank. The sample consists of respondents from banks in Västra Göraland, Halland and Skåne. Our collected data consists of the experience variables and assessment categories, which are coded and analyzed using the SPSS computer program. Our tests resulted in two significant differences between the experience variables and assessment categories. Through this we found that a large disagreement exist between the bank clerks when it comes to information management. Our essay has identified two new experience variables, which may partly explain the differences that exist in the information management between bank clerks when giving loans to Swedish companies.</p>

När ditt företag söker ett lån undersöker banktjänstemannen företagets framtida förmåga att betala räntor och amorteringar på ditt lån, dvs. återbetalningsförmågan. För att avgöra företagets återbetalningsförmåga görs en kreditbedömning vilken grundar sig på hård och mjuk information. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka om våra tre erfarenhetsvariabler: antal år som kreditbedömare, tidigare erfarenhet av företagande och formell utbildning påverkar informationshanteringen under bedömningsprocessen vid kreditgivning till svenska företag. Vi har valt en kvantitativ ansats för att bättre kunna förklara skillnaderna och försöka generalisera. Undersökningen grundar sig på enkätliknande formulär vilka besvaras genom telefonintervjuer. Respondenterna består av företagsrådgivare (kreditbedömare) från de fyra storbankerna: Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB och Swedbank. Urvalet består av respondenter från bankkontor i Västra Götaland, Halland och Skåne. Vår insamlade data består av erfarenhetsvariabler och bedömningskategorier vilka är kodade och analyserad med hjälp av datorprogrammet SPSS. Våra tester resulterade i två signifikanta skillnader mellan erfarenhetsvariabler och bedömningskategorier. Genom detta kunde vi konstatera att stor oenighet råder mellan kreditbedömarna avseende informationshanteringen. Vår uppsats har identifierat två nya erfarenhetsvariabler vilka delvis kan förklara de skillnader som föreligger i informationsbedömningen mellan kreditbedömare vid kreditgivning till svenska företag. / When your company is applying for a loan a bank clerk investigate your company's future ability to meet interest and capital repayments on your loan, ie. repayment ability. In order to determine the company's ability to repay a credit which is based on hard and soft information. The purpose of this essay is to examine if our three experience variables: number of years as a bank clerk, former entrepreneurial experience and formal education affects information management during the assessment process when giving loans to Swedish companies. We have chosen a quantitative approach to better explain the differences and try to generalize. The study is based on survey forms, which is answered by telephone interviews. The respondents consist of business advisers (credit analysts) from the four big Swedish banks: Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB and Swedbank. The sample consists of respondents from banks in Västra Göraland, Halland and Skåne. Our collected data consists of the experience variables and assessment categories, which are coded and analyzed using the SPSS computer program. Our tests resulted in two significant differences between the experience variables and assessment categories. Through this we found that a large disagreement exist between the bank clerks when it comes to information management. Our essay has identified two new experience variables, which may partly explain the differences that exist in the information management between bank clerks when giving loans to Swedish companies.

My dissertation examines the representations of materialism -- a philosophy stereotypically associated with a reductive, anti-theological and mechanistic world-picture -- in the published prose and (typically) unpublished poetry of several figures central to scientific discourse in the latter half of the nineteenth century, most notably W. K. Clifford, a mathematician, and John Tyndall, a physicist and media-savvy ‘champion of science’. These engagements, and representations, were not merely on the level of ‘direct’ argumentation, however. A self-consciously allusive, even polyphonous tone was far from uncommon in the many literatures arising from mid-Victorian scientific encounter, and this openness of form permitted both popularisers and critics of materialism to choose the vocabularies in which to relate their observations –- the texts with which they would engage –- towards specific ends. As I argue, such was a task they performed with great care and an often astonishing felicity: an essay on cosmology, after all, acquires quite a different colouration when interleaved with the cadences of Milton, another again if illustrated with quotations from Whitman or an epigram from ‘Tintern Abbey’. My 1st chapter provides a broader context for those that follow, analysing both changing nineteenth-century ideas of materialism and also a range of potential reactions to -– and inter alia a variety of the contrasting vernaculars used in illustration of –- contemporary metaphysical or ‘methodological’ materialism. My 2nd chapter offers a reading of Tyndall’s August 1874 Belfast Address, the locus classicus for practically all later elaborations of materialistic belief. My 3rd chapter contrasts the theologically orthodox position of James Clerk Maxwell (buttressed by allusions to the theologically doctrinaire George Herbert) with the radically atheistic and materialistic philosophy of Clifford (underpinned by the similarly atheistic Algernon Charles Swinburne). My 4th and 5th chapters are paired studies in the ‘private’ nuances of Tyndall’s ideology, elaborating on my 2nd chapter’s scrutiny of its more public attributes. The former discusses his notions of cosmic connectedness, ironically derived from the non-materialistic works of Carlyle. The latter examines both the exultancy and the despair explicit in Tyndall’s poetry and implicit in his prose. As I note in conclusion, such contrary emotions, phrased with striking clarity in Tyndall, are common in mid-Victorian writings concerning materialism, directly or indirectly. They are rooted in the hopes afforded by materialism’s explanatory prowess, on the one hand, and the ‘atrophy of spirit’ born of its austere, even dehumanising, epistemology, on the other; that is to say, in a salutary awareness of both power and pitfalls.

This thesis examines accounts of electricity in journalism, short stories, novels, poetry and instructional writings, composed between 1830 and 1880 by scientific investigators, popular practitioners and fiction authors. The writings are approached as diverse and often incongruous impressions of electricity, in which the use of figurative and narrative techniques brings into question distinctions between science and literature. It is proposed that the unusual combination of electricity’s historical characterisation as an elixir vitae, intense investigation by contemporary scientists, and close alliance with new technologies offered unique opportunities for imaginative speculation. The thesis contends that engaging with these conflicting characteristics created a synthesis of scientific, social and literary responses that defy epistemological and generic categorisation. Fictionality is approached in chapter two as a central feature of scientific conceptualisation, experiment and discovery, particularly in the work of Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell. In chapters three and four, the landscape of popular non-fiction books and periodicals is mapped, to show the ways in which the period’s publication contexts and forums, reading patterns, and use of literary practices contributed to wider engagement with ideas about electricity. Chapters five and six focus on fiction writings, identifying parallels and divergences between actual electrical science and its fictional portrayal. Short stories are shown to have emphasised associations between electricity, neurosis, deformity and the occult, complicating contemporary scientific optimism and presenting electricity as an alluring yet dangerous phenomenon, which disordered the natural world and man’s relationship with it. These characteristics are identified further in the metaphorical references of several canonical novelists, in the exploitation of electricity, elixirs and power depicted by William Harrison Ainsworth and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and through a case study of the text and reception of a popular novel about electricity by Benjamin Lumley. The thesis contends that electricity’s anomalous and protean nature produced distinctively hybrid responses that enhance our understanding of contemporary popular writing, its contexts and how it was read.

Le vieillissement de la population est un phénomène démographique auquel est confronté le Québec. Dans ce contexte, la protection des personnes inaptes et vulnérables, prendra de plus en plus d'importance au cours des prochaines années. Ces personnes doivent bénéficier d'une protection adéquate lors de l'ouverture d'un régime de protection à leur égard. Considérant que l'ouverture d'un régime de protection au majeur inapte est toujours le résultat d'une décision judiciaire, le greffier de la Cour supérieure du Québec a un rôle fondamental à jouer à l'occasion dans le processus judiciaire. À titre d'officier de justice, il a compétence pour prononcer le jugement d'ouverture du régime de protection. Par conséquent, le présent mémoire consiste à vérifier si les majeurs inaptes sont bien protégés par le rôle et les pouvoirs de l'officier de justice. Pour ce faire, le sujet à l'étude a fait l'objet d'une double approche. Dans un premier temps, le cadre juridique à l'intérieur duquel le greffier doit exécuter ses fonctions sera étudié. Dans un deuxième temps, les résultats et l'analyse d'une enquête empirique auprès des greffiers de la Cour supérieure du Québec seront exposés. Cette démarche permet une approche comparative entre la théorie et la pratique en la matière et permet de constater qu'il peut y avoir un écart entre les deux. / Aging population is a phenomenon faced by Quebec. In this context, the protection of incapacitated and vulnerable individuals will be increasingly important in the coming years and they should benefit adequate protection from the institution of protective supervision. Considering that the institution of protective supervision is always the result of a court order, the clerk of the Superior Court of Quebec has a fundamental role to play during the judicial process. The judicial officer has jurisdiction to pronounce the judgment of institution of protective supervision. The following study will attempt to verify whether the proven inapt persons are well protected under the actual system whereby the judicial officer has the function and the powers to decide. To do this, a two way analysis will be used. First, the legal framework within which the clerk shall perform its functions will be studied and second, the results and analysis of an empirical survey of clerks of the Superior Court of Quebec will be discussed. This approach should reveal the existing gap between theory and practice.