Background and Purpose: People living with SCI (PLWSCI) have to cope with various challenges when they return home after institutionalized rehabilitation, especially with integrating back into and participating in their communities. To date no study has been conducted in South Africa to empirically measure community integration or to evaluate factors affecting the community integration of PLWSCI. The purpose of the study was to investigate factors influencing the community participation of PLWSCI after rehabilitation. Methodology: A cross-sectional, analytical research design employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used. Data collection: Phase one: Participants were identified from the databases of two rehabilitation centers, and the snow balling technique. Data were collected by implementing: the socio-demographic and injury profile (SDIP), the Return to Normal Living Index (RNLI), the Spinal Cord Injury Measure – version II (SCIM II) and the Craig Hospital Inventory of Environmental Factors – short form (CHIEF-SF). Phase two: In-depth face to face interviews were conducted with a purposely selected sample group from participants of phase one of the study to determine how participants perceive their community participation. Data Analysis: Phase one: Data were analyzed using version 17 of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 17). Descriptive statistics, T- tests, Pearson productmoment correlation coefficients and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), with Bonferroni adjustments for multiple comparisons, was done to examine demographic characteristics and participants’ community participation. Data from Phase 2 was subjected to data-reducing procedures using qualitative techniques. Results – Phase One One hundred and sixty PLWSCI (134 males and 26 females) from the Tshwane metropolitan area participated in this phase of the study. The participants were predominantly young, male, unemployed and single and their major cause of SCI was road traffic accidents, which accounted for 71% of the injuries. The participants’ satisfaction with their community participation was generally low, only 20% expressed satisfaction with their community participation. Satisfaction with community participation was significantly associated with the participants’ race, level of education, employment, educational qualifications, years of living with SCI, level of SCI, health complications, perceived health status, functional ability and perceived environmental factors such as physical (structural and geographic) barriers and lack of transport. Results – Phase 2 Fifteen PLWSCI participated in interviews. Two themes influencing participation were identified from the interview transcripts: Personal factors (coping skills, rehabilitation experience, future aspirations, personal needs, psycho-emotional issues and meaningful use of time) and Environmental factors (attitudes of others, social support and accessibility issues). Conclusion The results of the two phases revealed that community participation of PLWSCI was mainly related to three major categories of factors: personal factors, disability-related factors and environmental factors. Satisfaction with community participation was greater in participants who had been living with SCI for longer periods, had more years of basic education, were not black Africans, lived in suburbs, and were employed. A positive outlook on life and engagement in creative activities during free time enhanced community participation. Disability-related factors included level of SCI, functional ability and perceived general health influenced satisfaction with community participation. Community participation was greater in participants who experienced fewer environmental barriers. “Attitudes of members of society”, “accessibility of the environment” and “social support” influenced the participants’ satisfaction with community participation. A framework for facilitating community participation of PLWSCI was developed. Strategies to be implemented by various multi-sectoral stakeholders to enhance community participation are proposed.p> / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Physiotherapy / Unrestricted

Abstract Date:                         2020 June 08 Level:                        Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution:                School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors:                   David Kuwa                                   Sajjad Ahmed                                  (87/01/12)                                      (88/01/03) Title:                         Return it or not?                                  How informed e-commerce customers are in relation to environmental effects caused by e-purchase returns. Tutor:                       DAVID FREUND Keywords:                E-commerce, Returns and return policies, Customer behaviour, Environmental factors Research question:                   How informed are e-commerce customers regarding negative environmental impacts of e-commerce returned goods? Aim & Purpose:        To understand the environmental effects caused by E-commerce purchase returns and research on how informed the E-commerce consumers in Sweden are on these effects in subject to their buying and returning behaviour. Method:         Qualitative research method approach is used where focus groups are organized and discuss with the help of semi-structured discussion questions   Conclusion:   Online buyers concentrate more on the return policy a company gives, and many will utilize the free policies to order goods impulsively, just to later make returns of the extra goods that they do not require. They found using e-commerce to return goods to be very beneficial. This is as a result of little knowledge of the environmental effects caused by goods returns. Given ample information by retailers, (which many consumers suggest is necessary), customer could practice more caution in making order returns.

Like a large part of western Europe also from the Czech landscape is dramatically disappearing amphibians. This negative trend occurred due to several factors, some of which is undoubtedly the most significant loss of suitable breeding areas. During the years 2009 and 2010 I monitored a total of 31 tanks in a part of the former districts of Liberec, Jablonec nad Nisou and Semily, in which were multiplied frog (Rana temporaria) and toad (Bufo bufo). On these localities I've watched a few environment variables, which I assume that may affect the successful development of amphibians from egg stage to metamorphosis. The success of development, I determined by counting congeries in the spring and then finding the number of tadpoles in the tank survived the conversion. The results of multiple linear regression shows that the developmental stages of brown frog react negatively to the increasing altitude and increasing the number of eggs per unit area of the tank. On the contrary, they thrive better in larger, at least partially shaded tanks, which are subject to fluctuations in water level. For toad are suitable not very deep, partially shaded tanks, with a stable water level, vegetation and aquatic vegetation free shores. Also managed to find the eggs and tadpoles of toads react negatively to the...

Bakgrund: Uppsatsen har sitt teoretiska och empiriska fokus på investeringsprocessen. Utifrån detta ska studien redogöra för hur miljömässiga faktorer integreras i investeringsprocessen. Det saknas idag djupa och omfattande redogörelser för hur miljö kan beaktas genom investeringsprocessen. Därför undersöker uppsatsen investeringsprocessen i ett antal utvalda företag, där extra vikt läggs vid hur miljö avspeglas i processen. Vidare är även företagens tillämpning av traditionella investeringskalkyler en del i vad som undersöks. Ambitionen är att på ett vägledande sätt beskriva hur miljömässiga faktorer på ett balanserat sätt kan integreras i investeringsprocessen.  Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att bidra med kunskap för att öka förståelsen för hur miljömässiga faktorer integreras i investeringsprocessen. Studien avser därutöver utveckla en empiriskt testad modell för hur miljömässiga faktorer integreras i investeringsprocessens olika faser.  Metod: Studien är en kvalitativ intervjustudie på sex svenska företag inom tre olika branscher. Till studien hör en omfattande litteratursökning med utgångspunkt i huvudsak två avhandlingar. Data samlades in genom 15 semistrukturerade intervjuer. Materialet analyserades sedermera genom de fem stegen för analys av kvalitativ data. Slutsats: Studiens slutsatser är att miljömässiga faktorer integreras i flera av investeringsprocessens faser. Tillvägagångssättet för integrering av miljömässiga faktorer kretsar kring fyra teman; kvantifiering, kriterier, lagkrav och kongruens mot miljömässiga strategier och mål. Samtliga teman finns med både i initieringsfasen och i bedömningsfasen, med undantag för kvantifiering som är ett strikt tema för bedömningsfasen. Vidare har kvantifiering framförallt teoretiska förankring medan kriterier i den här studien enbart har empirisk förankring. Studien har avslutningsvis resulterat i en modifierad modell för hur miljömässiga faktorer integreras i investeringsprocessens olika faser. / Background: This thesis has its theoretical and empirical focus on the investment process. Based on this, the study will account for how environmental factors are integrated in the investment process. There is currently a lack of deep and comprehensive accounts of how the environment can be taken into account through the investment process. Therefore, the thesis examines the investment process in a number of selected companies, where emphasis is placed on how environmental factors are considered in the process. Furthermore, companies' application of traditional capital budgeting techniques is also a part of the empirical study. The ambition is to, in a guiding way, describe how environmental factors can be integrated in the investment process. Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of how environmental factors are integrated in the investment process. The study also aims to develop an empirically tested model for how environmental factors are integrated in the various phases of the investment process. Method: This thesis is a qualitative interview study of six Swedish companies in three different industries. The study includes an extensive literature search based on two dissertations. Data were collected through 15 semi-structured interviews. The material was later analyzed through the five steps for analysis of qualitative data. Conclusion: The conclusions of this thesis are that environmental factors are integrated into several phases of the investment process. The approach to integrating environmental factors revolves around four themes; quantification, criteria, legal requirements and congruence with environmental strategies and objectives. All themes are included in both the initiation phase and the integrating phase, with the exception of quantification, which is only emphasised in the integrating phase. Furthermore, quantification has primarily theoretical grounding, while criteria only have empirical grounding. The study has finally resulted in a modified conceptual model for how environmental factors are integrated into the various phases of the investment process.

Home health clinicians are uniquely qualified to fully evaluate patient falls risk and carry out clinical interventions to reduce risk. The objectives of this article are to give home health providers an update on the risk factors for falling, review the current guideline recommendations for prevention of falls, and provide a stepwise approach to evaluate patients and apply the clinical literature to decrease falls in older patients living at home. Many falls may be prevented with patient screening, assessment of risk, and modification of risk factors. Since the risk of falling is an interaction between three groupings of patient-specific factors, namely, environmental factors, diseases/disorders, and medication use, a multifactorial fall risk assessment can help identify the factors to consider modifying in an individual patient.

This exploratory study examined the different tourism market development strategies that tourism Multinational Corporations (MNCs) implement in their operations in African host countries. It empirically investigated the existence of any relationships between tourism MNCs’ market development strategies and the “Needs and Expectations of African host countries.” Also, it investigated the influences of external environmental factors on tourism MNCs’ tourism market strategic choice. Its sample population were top management executives of tourism MNCs‘ with operations in the African market. The unit of analysis was the corporation. The sample frame was an exhaustive list of tourism MNCs with operations in the African region. The initial sample size was 106 tourism MNCs’ executives. Thirty-seven of them responded to a mail in survey questionnaire. Two of the questionnaires were discarded due to numerous missing data. Thus, there were 35 usable questionnaires for data analysis, which is a response rate of 33%. The study results identified relationships between the integration of Multinational Corporations’ (MNCs) tourism market development strategies with the needs and expectations of developing African host countries, and their successful performance in those host countries in terms of growth in operations and profitability. It revealed that significant differences exist among the market development strategies on the factors of needs and expectations of African host countries. The significant factors were community participation, local entrepreneurship, and job and national security. Also, the economic development factor was observed to be partially significant. This study also identified free trade economy in the African host countries as a significant factor on the influence of external environment. The framework of this study is embedded in the underlying theories of international strategic management, international business, international development, and needs and expectations. The study’s final conceptual model depicts the significant factors of African host countries’ needs and expectations, the tourism market development strategies, an integration of the two concepts and the resultant tourism MNCs successful performance. This research study investigated MNCs in all sectors of the tourism industry. And the findings have shown that for the tourism MNCs to be successful in their African host countries, they should be sensitive to the identified sectors, namely economic development, community participation, local entrepreneurship, and job and national security measures. Also, they should exert more efforts in exploring African free trade economies for their business locations in the region. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate differences among special education enrollments for specific learning disabilities (SLD) and other disabilities within districts using school-wide response to intervention (RTI). Differences between rural and suburban school districts during the phases of the insufficient criterion rollout for SLD identification were explored as were environmental factors' impact on RTI implementation. Systems theory framed how concerns in rural districts impact the ability to use RTI data for special education enrollment. The research questions examined prevalence rates of SLD and other disabilities, compared RTI implementation fidelity in rural and suburban districts, and explored environmental factors' impact on RTI fidelity. A repeated measures ANOVA, a series of ANOVAs, and a multiple regression analysis were used with archival data (274 cases) to examine the relationships between the variables. Results indicated rural schools are increasing identification of students with other disabilities and decreasing identification of students with SLDs. Compared with suburban schools, rural schools' SLD rates are not declining as quickly, while other disabilities increased to rates similar to that found in suburban settings. There were no significant differences between rural and suburban districts in RTI implementation fidelity; however, overall staff salary appears to impact RTI fidelity rates, especially in rural districts. Further research is needed to explore changes in special education enrollment practices and environmental factor's role in these changes. This study provides groundwork for positive social change by recognizing differences between school districts in identifying disability areas and obtaining necessary resources to implement new educational initiatives.

"May 2015" A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Occupational Therapy. Typescript Project Advisor : Max A. Ito Participation in social roles and daily activities is considered a primary outcome for children with cerebral palsy (CP) and thus is an important focus of pediatric therapy. The purpose of this study was to describe the participation patterns of children ages 2 to 6 years with CP, investigate how gross motor impairment affects participation, and identify those family and environmental factors that may influence participation in daily activities and social roles. A convenience sample of 51 children with CP between the ages of 2 and 6 years and their parents completed this study. Parents completed four standardized instruments: the Assessment of Life Habits (LIFE-H), the Impact on Family Scale, The Child and Adolescent Scale of Environment, and the Child Health Conditions Questionnaire, which measured participation, family burden, the environment, and associated conditions respectively. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to determine the extent to which family and environmental factors explained participation in daily activities and social roles while controlling for gross motor impairment (GMFCS), associated conditions and age. The findings of this study suggest that very young children with CP experience substantial restrictions across 10 of 11 domains of participation. Parents report greater environmental barriers, associated health conditions and impact on family as GMFCS levels increase. Gross motor impairment, associated health conditions, and age accounted for 65% of the variance in participation. The environment and family factors did not contribute significantly to the model. For the children in this study, intrinsic factors accounted for most of the variance in participation.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第21163号 / 農博第2289号 / 新制||農||1060(附属図書館) / 学位論文||H30||N5137(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科森林科学専攻 / (主査)教授 大澤 晃, 教授 北島 薫, 教授 神﨑 護 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

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