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This is the account of a qualitative study of practitioners in a low-cost counselling and psychotherapy scheme in a rural town. The practitioners within the organisation have been trained in two major modalities, psychodynamic and humanistic. The aim of the research is to look at how the three key psychoanalytic concepts: therapeutic alliance; transference and containment are understood and employed by these practitioners with the aim of demonstrating the differences, similarities and meeting points between the modalities. A total of twenty-eight participants met in six focus groups. These participants were already members of existing groups within the structure of the organisation i.e. the trustees, the management group and four mentor groups. The researcher was the Clinical Director of the service at the time of the study. She was the moderator in each group and an independent observer was present in each group. The discussions were recorded and transcribed and a thematic analysis was then undertaken. The psychoanalytic concepts were adopted as top down themes each with six associated sub-themes. Three further major themes were identified namely: the power dynamics in the therapy relationship; reference to theory: barrier or bridge to communication, and the therapy relationship. The thematic analysis revealed where the statements from the participants in the two modalities agreed, differed and/or demonstrated meeting points. The study includes a reflexivity section focussing on the dynamics of the researcher as the director of the organisation throughout the process, the contributions of the observer in the focus groups and the reflections of the participants about their experience in the focus groups. In addition, how the participants differed and what impact the research has had on the service was thought about in the context of the possible unconscious processes present in this work setting. It was found that there were key differences in the way practitioners from each modality approached the psychoanalytic concepts, but there were also differences between practitioners of the same modality. The differences about theoretical language and experts were substantial. Overall, the participants were able to discuss the subjects and exchange differing viewpoints with enthusiasm and curiosity. These findings are not generalizable to all psychotherapy services, but are likely to be relevant and transferable to those services, both voluntary and otherwise, that employ practitioners from different modalities. A conclusion was that it is not advisable to try and impose one way of working from one theoretical background onto another. This conclusion has implications for the service when providing training events, when matching practitioners with supervisors and when training mentors to lead and facilitate groups of practitioners from differing modalities. The study also offers contributions to the therapy world at large towards the contemporary thinking about the three psychoanalytic concepts, the timing of integrating therapy approaches, the value of mixed modality discussion groups, the obstacles to understanding that theoretical language can cause and the importance of the observation of the unconscious processes in such settings.

Econometric analysis of the impact of roundabouts on the number and severity of traffic accidents. Diploma thesis. Brno: Mendel University, 2015. This diploma thesis estimates the effect of converting conventional intersec-tions to roundabouts on the number and severity of traffic accidents. The effect is estimated in a Difference-in-Differences setup using data on 40 intersections con-verted to roundabouts and 40 conventional intersections that serve as a control group. The estimated effects, together with the existing estimates of the value of a statistical life, are then used as input data in a Cost-Benefit Analysis of converting intersections into roundabouts. The net present value of converting intersection to the roundabout estimated is estimated at minus 7 755 169 CZK, that is a net social loss. This is because in our data the number of serious injuries increased as a result of conversion. However, the results are not statistically significant, thus we cannot rule out the possibility that the conversion produces zero or moderate social benefits. The results suggest that more research is needed to ascertain whether intersection conversions are sound policy or a waste of resources

The Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method has been used extensively in electromagnetic field modeling because of its ability to robustly handle interactions of fields with complex heterogeneous structures. In particular, the total/scattered field formulation has allowed for efficient implementation of arbitrarily directed uniform plane waves, consequently facilitating efficient modeling of far-field scattering problems. The total/scattered approach is not restricted to plane waves and can be expanded to any waveforms that can be described in analytical or semi-analytical form. While existing formulations of FDTD have been immensely successful, they are not well suited to problems that involve near field scattering/interaction problems, where both the source and object are in the same domain but at a substantial distance from each other. This is due to the exceedingly high demands for computational resources that may result from the domain size, and/or dramatically different requirements for the mesh density in the source and object areas. One solution to this problem is to separate the domain into source and scatterer regions coupled by surface boundary radiation conditions. However, this method can incur large storage requirements for calculation of the radiation conditions. A specific near-field situation of interest to the utility industry is the case of workers near high voltage powerlines. In this instance, the field pattern takes on a cylindrical, transverse electromagnetic character. More general radiating sources can be accurately represented in the near-field by using spherical wave expansions, which are often used to represent antennas measured on test ranges. Successful implementation of these analytic solutions is feasible within the FDTD framework, and would allow for the illumination of the scatterer modeled at a considerably lower cost than in the standard approach. This thesis presents a method where these non-uniform, near-field, sources can be implemented implicitly as source conditions in an existing FDTD method. The specific case of powerline fields is described first, followed by the more general case of spherical waves. The analytic solution for powerline fields is implemented to show that near-field source configuration can be successfully modeled implicitly with accurate and efficient results. The method is validated by comparing with known analytic solutions, with very good accuracy being achieved. Then, a specific example of a human under a powerline close by is modeled to examine predictions made earlier under the assumption of a plane wave source condition. For a similar powerline source configuration, results of organ dosimetry predict that induced fields are from ten to sixty percent greater than predicted with the plane wave source. This same approach is applied to model a more general and difficult problem, namely spherical waves as sources in the total/scattered FDTD, called the SW-FDTD. Since transverse properties of spherical modes are known, the behavior of a mode can be represented on a one-dimensional radial grid. Thus, much like the plane wave sources in the FDTD method, the spherical wave modes are time-stepped on one-dimensional staggered electric/magnetic field source grids in the radial direction, representing mode propagation in free space. Spherical wave modes can then be interpolated and summed on the Huygens’ surface to represent the total field of the source, thus providing the coupling between the complex source and a scatterer using one-dimensional grids. It is assumed that the object of interest is beyond the reactive near-field of the source, and therefore there is no significant coupling between source and object. The SW-FDTD method is validated by comparing simulations with several analytic solutions that increase in complexity, demonstrating very good accuracy. Issues relating to the numerical implementation are discussed, including the effects of numerical dispersion, stability, and simple Mur first order boundary conditions. Incorporation of the method as a source condition in an existing FDTD program, and validation of this synthesis, show that the SW-FDTD method can implictly model sources as accurately as explicit models do. The efficiency, and the reduction of errors remain issues for further research to improve the overall utility of the SW-FDTD method. / Graduate

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“When in Rome do as the Romans do” – this hundreds years old proverb is still very actual today. Even more, nowadays you don’t even have to go to Rome to feel cultural differences. The communication technology have changed the world economy, thousands of people work now for multinational companies, interacting daily not just with a culture, but possibly with as much as 5 or 6 different ones. Some teams even work in different geographical locations communicating exclusively by electronic means. Today’s managers just have to deal with culture whether they like it or not, but the whole employee-manager relationship may be turned upside down on another side of the globe. So what should we do and what do we do about it? Ho do we manage effectively? These are the questions that this study aims to answer at. The main research objects of this study are rather small software engineering teams and companies that are working in cross-cultural environment, but do have little or no special company policies and other formal ways to manage cultural differences. Yet we found out that managers develop there own understanding of cultural issues and are practicing different methods to deal with them. / mkitsul@yahoo.com; seza@km.ru

We consider the finite difference method applied to a class of financial problems. Specifically, we investigate the properties of the Du Fort and Frankel finite difference scheme and experiment with adaptations of the scheme to improve on its consistency properties. The Du Fort and Frankel finite difference scheme is applied to a number of problems that frequently occur in finance. We specifically investigate problems associated with jumps, discontinuous behavior, free boundary problems and multi dimensionality. In each case we consider adaptations to the Du Fort and Frankel scheme in order to produce reliable results. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Mathematics and Applied Mathematics / unrestricted

Workplace violence is an area of increasing concern worldwide. Issues of violence are well documented in nursing. To address this, a better understanding of the culture of nursing academia is required. Problems of incivility are reported between students, between students and faculty, and between faculty and faculty. The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of faculty to faculty violence in nursing academia. Guided by a theoretical framework incorporating the perspectives of Mason and Foucault and specifically on the concepts of violence, power, knowledge, difference and resistance, this study focuses on aspects of the social and cultural work environment, and organizational policies and procedures influencing workplace violence between faculty members. Using principles from critical ethnography, the research was conducted within three schools of nursing at universities in eastern Canada. Data collection included 29 semi-structured interviews with nursing faculty, key informants (including representation from management, human resources, support staff and human rights office) and mute document review. Three major themes emerged: the academic apparatus, experiencing academia, and coping mechanisms. Nursing academic culture is divergent, exhibiting fierce competitiveness and elitism, intertwined with pockets of support and resilience. Faculty identified diverse personal and professional strategies employed to withstand the challenges. Need for change was expressed by some faculty and managers. These findings may inform the efforts of faculty and management seeking transformation to a less competitive and elitist culture.

When examinees with the same ‘ability’ take a test, they should have an equal chance of responding correctly to an item irrespective of group membership. This logic in assessment is known as measurement invariance. The lack of invariance of the item-, bundle-, and test-difficulty across different subgroups indicates differential functioning (DF). The aim of this study is to advance our understanding of DF by detecting, predicting and explaining the sources of DF by gender in a mathematics test. The presence of DF means that the test scores of these examinees may fail to provide a valid measure of their performance. A framework for investigating DF was proposed, moving from the item-level to a more complex random-item level, which provides a theme of critiques of limitations in DF methods and explorations of some advances. A dataset of 11-year-olds of a high-stakes National mathematics examination from England was used in this study. The results are reported in three journal publication format papers. The first paper addressed the issue of understanding nonuniform differential item functioning (DIF) at the item- level. The nonuniform DIF is investigated because it is a possible threat when common DIF statistics sensitive to uniform DIF may indicate no significant DIF. This study differentiates two different types of nonuniform DIF, namely crossing and noncrossing DIF. Two commonly used DIF detection methods, namely the Logistic Regression (LR) procedure and the Rasch measurement model were used to identify crossing and noncrossing DIF. This paper concludes that items with nonuniform DIF do exist in empirical data; hence there is a need to include statistics sensitive to crossing DIF in item analysis. The second paper investigated the sources of DF via differential bundle functioning (DBF) because this way we may get a substantive explanations of DF - without which we do not know if DF is ‘valid’ or ‘biased’. Roussos and Stout’s (1996a) multidimensionality-based DIF paradigm was used with an extension of the LR procedure to detect DBF. Three qualitatively different content areas: test modality, curriculum domains and problem presentation were studied. This paper concludes that DBF in curriculum domains may elicit construct-relevant variance, and so may indicate 'real' differences, whereas problem presentation and test modality arguably includes construct-irrelevant variance and so may indicate gender bias. Finally, the third paper considered item-person responses as hierarchically nested within items. Hence a two-level logistic model was used to model the random item effects, because otherwise it is argued that DF might be over-exaggerated and may lead to invalid inferences. This paper aimed to explain DF via DBF comparing single-level and two-level models. The DIF effects of the single-level model were found to be attenuated in the two-level model. A discussion of why the two different models produced different results was presented. Taken together, this thesis shows how validity arguments regarding bias should not be reduced to DF at item-level but can be analysed on three different levels.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were sex-related differences in students' attitudes toward computers at the Grade 4 level. A questionnaire was constructed, consisting of twenty-five multiple choice items, two subjective items and eight background items. The multiple choice items were grouped into six reporting categories: (1) Interest in and Enjoyment in Using Computers, (2) Anxiety and Confidence About Computer Use, (3) Perceived Usefulness of Computers, (4) Perceived Sex Roles in Attitudes Toward Computers, (5) Relationship Between Mathematics and Computers, and (6) Attitudes Toward Mathematics. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 290 students. The sample consisted of 143 girls and 147 boys. The data were analysed to determine any sex differences in responses to each of the items in each of the reporting categories. Attitudes toward individual items and reporting categories were defined to be positive if 50% or more of the students/girls/boys responded to the item/category in a manner established by the author as positive. To identify significantly different responses, median polish was used on the item-by-gender tables. Results of the median polish revealed items that had been reacted to, by all students, in a more strongly positive or negative manner in comparison to the other items within the category. In addition, sex differences in responses to each of the items and the reporting categories were indicated and any patterns related to either items or gender were revealed. In addition to the analysis of individual items and reporting categories, results from the 25 items for girls were compared based on whether or not their mothers use computers and also for all students based on whether or not they had computers at home. The results of the questionnaire indicate that there were no sex differences in responses to five of the six reporting categories. Girls and boys at this age would seem to have comparable positive attitudes toward computers with regard to "Interest in and Enjoyment in Using Computers", "Anxiety and Confidence About Computer Use", "Perceived Usefulness of Computers" and "Relationship Between Mathematics and Computers", and "Attitudes Toward Mathematics". There were significant sex-related differences in one category, "Perceived Sex Roles in Attiudes Toward Computers". It was found that while both girls and boys have a positive attitude in this category, 22% more girls than boys displayed this positive attitude. However, in view of the difficulty of interpreting these results, one cannot provide a strong argument for concluding that one gender has a stronger positive (less sexist) attitude than the other. Girls and boys at this age feel it is just as important for either sex to use and learn about computers. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate