This thesis presents the findings of a multi-site case study, which explored the inclusion of primary school children in rural Cross River State, Nigeria. The research engaged specifically with the experiences of thirty 11-16-year-olds from diverse identities, drawn from primary 5 classrooms in three public primary schools sited in different rural locations within the state. In so doing, it adopted pupil presence, participation and achievement (PPA) as a conceptual framework of inclusion to examine whether education is genuinely for all primary age children within the research sites. The study was set within the context of the outcome of the 1990 Education for All (EFA) conference, which promoted universal access to education for all primary age children worldwide. As such, the investigation considered how far the selected primary schools were able to guarantee equal access, participation and achievement of all pupils under Nigeria's national education policy. It used the PPA framework to identify the drawbacks to pupil inclusion at school and to recommend measures for addressing the obstacles experienced by some learners. Qualitative data were generated via documentary analysis, observations and interviews in schools directly featuring children. Relevant data pooled from the three sources were organised and analysed thematically based upon an interpretivist perspective. Thus, analysis of data was informed by the social constructivist theory. Data analysis indicates that current provision enables schools to allow access for nearly all children. However, despite the good intentions of national policy, girls, children from minority tribes, Muslims of Hausa/Fulani origin, and children with learning difficulties and those with impairments were vulnerable to marginalisation and exclusion within the contexts of their schools. Looking through the lens of social constructivism, the thesis strongly links the disadvantages confronting the children to limited pupil voice. The situation limited the opportunity for pupils to share their perspectives about the ways such issues as gaps in national education policy and in-school factors, including classroom practices, religious attitudes, grade repetition and social interactions were affecting their inclusion in the context. Out-of-school factors were also found to have an influence, although the study did not investigate these directly. The thesis concludes by drawing out the implications and making recommendations for reforms in policy, practice and research in favour of pupil voice within Nigeria, to promote inclusion in schools. Consideration is also given to possible implications for other developing countries.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate general education teachers’ perceptions of being prepared to work with students identified with autism, grade level assignments, time concerns, and the presence of an ancillary attendant in their classrooms. Participants in this study were located in one city school system in North East Tennessee. All data were collected through an online survey distributed to 230 teachers, of whom 79 responded. Four research questions were analyzed, 3 with single sample t tests and 1 with a one-way ANOVA. Results indicated no statistical significance regarding grade level assignments and general education teachers’ perceptions of inclusion of students identified with autism. General education teachers who participated in this research indicated significant negative perceptions of feeling prepared to manage social issues, communication issues, and aggressive behaviors associated with autism as well as having adequate time to work with students identified with autism. Significant positive perceptions were indicated for the presence of an ancillary attendant in their classroom to assist with students identified with autism.

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This is an ethnographic case study of the inclusion of a fifteen-year-old male with severe disabilities in general education classes in a four-year high school in a medium-sized Midwestern city. The study took place during the student's freshman and sophomore years. The investigator interviewed 17 of the participants in the student's inclusion; administrators, special education staff, general education teachers, and parents--accumulating over 450 pages of transcribed interviews in the process. She spent five days in field observation of the student's general education classes and other school activities--all recorded in substantial on-site notes--and had access to relevant documents concerning the student in the school's files. The NVivo 8 computer software was used to code the data. A Story of High School Inclusion: An Ethnographic Case Study examines these questions: How did parents and professionals (e.g., school administrators, special education staff, general education teachers, state-level special education consultants) involved in the process of the inclusion of a student with severe disabilities in general education high school classes define inclusion? How did they characterize their attitudes toward it? What role did each of them play in preparing for the student's inclusion? How did each of them describe their part in the process of the student's inclusion? Do the accounts of those individuals involved in the inclusion of the student with severe disabilities align or do they suggest tensions? What was the impact of these alignments or tensions on the inclusion process? All the participants interviewed in the study agreed with and supported the idea of inclusion; however, except for the parents, those expressions of agreement and support were typically followed with a "but" that led on to a variety of reservations and qualifications. Preparation for the student's inclusion in high school was thorough, consisting in a series of comprehensive meetings involving all parties with a role in the student's inclusion--even to the point of seeking the input of those who had worked with the student in junior high school. During the day-to-day implementation of these plans, the student's general education teachers were pleased with his comprehension of, and participation in, the academic material. However, the paraeducator was often observed to be filling an instructional role that properly belonged to the qualified teacher. Moreover, her presence had a compromising effect on the student's social interactions. A two-way matrix was created to discover areas of agreement and disagreement among the parties to the student's inclusion. These rich data reveal that there was broad agreement among all the school participants, academic and administrative, but that strong tensions arose between the student's parents and the school personnel. These results suggest that families and schools may concur at a philosophical level regarding inclusion, but disagree at the implementation level, resulting in tensions and conflicts that might be prevented or ameliorated by more open and direct communication.

While inclusion has been identified as the key to unlocking the benefits of diversity in organizations, the impact of inclusive leader behaviors on employee perceptions is rarely examined. By demonstrating behaviors that supports employee voice and encourages employee participation, inclusive supervisors may impact employees’ perceptions of organizational resources. The present study examines the mediating roles of trust, justice, and leader-member exchange (LMX) on the relationship between inclusive leadership and employees’ perceptions of organizational resources (general organizational means-efficacy; GOME). A path analysis was used to examine the mediation model, which found that inclusive leadership strongly predicts GOME perceptions. Mixed support was obtained for the proposed mediation model, as informational justice, distributive justice, and interpersonal justice significantly mediated the relationship. While procedural justice and trust were not statistically significant mediators, the combined mediators almost fully mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership and GOME. The results suggest that direct supervisors play a crucial role in enhancing employee justice and trust perceptions, which in turn positively impact GOME perceptions. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Educating a diverse student population is a core principle of international school education. Historically, many international schools have had admissions policies that excluded students with special learning needs. However, admission policies have changed to require more inclusiveness and school support for a wider range of students and for effectively meeting their needs. The study was based on change theory. Of interest was how school leaders best supported the change process to create the conditions for success in the context of changing admissions policies. Research questions targeted strategies that supported change and student success that were used to change the culture of a school to be inclusive of students with special learning needs. A bounded case study approach was used, selecting an international school that has successfully gone through this change. Interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 9 school leaders and teachers from those who volunteered and based on criteria to have a balanced group of types of positions and experience with inclusion. Findings were supportive of understanding the change process in context and were focused on ensuring common understandings among all stakeholders, creating systems and resources to support inclusive practices, ensuring ongoing and embedded professional learning, and understanding the diversity challenges inherent in the international school context. A project was developed to provide international school leaders with professional development based on the findings so they can effectively assist teachers and school personnel in making changes towards inclusion. The project contributes to social change by providing access and support to international schools for students who previously may have been excluded based on their special learning needs.

A series of new, octadentate, fluorescent, macrocyclic ligands have been prepared with a view to using them to study aromatic anion sequestration. The eight-coordinate Cd(II) complexes of the ligands have been shown capable of acting as receptors for a range of aromatic oxoanions. This has been demonstrated by perturbation of both 1H NMR chemical shift values and the anthracene derived fluorescence emission intensity as the potential guest anion and the host are combined. Non-linear least squares regression analysis of the resulting titration curves leads to the determination of binding constants in 20% aqueous 1,4-dioxane which lie in the range 10^2.3 M-1 (benzoate) to 10^7.5 M-1 (2,6-dihydroxybenzoate). By reference to the X-ray determined structures of related, but non-fluorescent inclusion complexes, the primary anion retention force is known to arise from hydrogen bonding between the anion and four convergent hydroxy groups that exist at the base of a cavity that develops in the complexes as their aromatic groups juxtapose upon coordination. This work reveals significant stability enhancement when hydroxy groups are positioned on the anion at points where O-H...pi hydrogen bonding to the aromatic rings that constitute the walls of the cavity becomes geometrically possible.

While our schools across the United States evidently are witnessing an influx of students from diverse backgrounds, the need to address the issue of diversity among public school teachers is critical for inclusive and equitable schools. The purpose of this study was to explore and analyze Texas secondary agricultural education teachers' attitudes toward diversity inclusion in Texas secondary agricultural education programs. Using a web-based questionnaire, the researcher employed a nonproportional stratified random sampling technique, and 232 secondary agricultural education teachers participated in the study. Descriptive statistics were used for reporting the demographic and personal characteristics of respondents. Mean scores were used to assess teachers' perceptions of the benefits of diversity inclusion, perceptions of the barriers of diversity inclusion, and perceptions of proposed solutions to increase diversity inclusion in Texas secondary agricultural education programs. The sample consisted of 170 males and 45 females. The ethnic distribution of the sample was 90.5% White/European American, 6.2% Hispanic/Latino American, 1.9% Native American, 0.9% African American, and 0.5% Asian American. Respondents agreed that secondary agricultural education programs can benefit students of color and students with disabilities. Respondents also agreed that some of the barriers that prevent diversity inclusion in agricultural education include the lack of information about agricultural education, negative parental attitudes about agricultural education, and not being accepted by peers. Respondents indicated that the following is needed for all students to achieve in school: (a) educators, parents, and policymakers must develop strategies to address the different learning styles of all students; (b) agricultural educators should encourage and strive to increase students? of color membership in FFA; (c) teachers should become familiar with students of color represented in their classrooms in order to promote an atmosphere of acceptance and cooperation; and (d) agricultural educators should increase recruitment efforts to promote diversity inclusion must occur. The study also indicated that statistically significant differences in means scores existed based upon certain personal characteristics in regards to the Benefits, Barriers, and Solutions scales.

The present study was carried out to investigate theformation and chemical development of non-metallic inclusionsduring ladle treatment of steel. To begin with, an investigation of the deoxidation processand the impact of aluminium addition was carried out. For thispurpose, a new experimental setup was constructed. The setupallowed the examination of the deoxidation process as afunction of time by using a quenching technique. Preliminaryexperiments showed that homogeneous nucleation of alumina tookplace in the areas supersaturated with aluminium. Theseexperiments also showed that agglomeration of alumina particleswas a very rapid process, even when the convection in the meltwas negligible. In order to examine whether aluminium supersaturation occursduring industrial practice, the deoxidation of liquid steelwith aluminium wire injection in a gas-stirred ladle wassimulated by mathematical modeling using a Computational FluidDynamics (CFD) approach. The results showed that theconcentration of aluminium in the vicinity of the aluminiumwire injection was high enough to generate homogeneousnucleation of alumina. Aiming at an understanding of the inclusion chemistry duringthe ladle process, an industrial study was performed atUddeholm Tooling AB. The impact of slag-lining reactions andladle glaze as a source of inclusions in the melt was alsostudied. The experimental results were analysed from athermodynamic viewpoint to gain an insight into the origins ofthe inclusions and their changes along the process of the ladletreatment. Six types of inclusions were found in the steel. Thetypes of inclusions present varied along the history of theladle treatment. Three types of inclusions were found in theliquid steel before deoxidation, namely type A (a liquidinclusion with high SiO2 concentration), type B (spinel) andtype C (a combination of type A and type B). Thermodynamicanalysis indicated that these types of inclusions could begenerated by the reaction between the Electric Arc Furnace(EAF) slag and the ladle glaze, during the filling of theladle. The addition of aluminium resulted in the formation ofalumina inclusions (type E), which agglomerated and separatedfrom the steel very fast. The spinel inclusions of type B werefound to be unstable at low oxygen potentials. The inclusionsof this type would react with the liquid metal forming theinclusions of type F (spinel in the centre surrounded by anoxide solution containing Al2O3, CaO and MgO). Further,reaction between the liquid metal and inclusions of type Fwould result in the inclusions of type G, an oxide solutionmostly consisting of Al2O3 and CaO with small amounts of MgOand SiO2. The inclusions of type G were the only inclusionsfound in the steel before casting.

Inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) has been occurring as an economically important, emerging disease of broiler chickens in several countries. Historically, IBH has been identified as a secondary disease, often associated with common immunosuppressive diseases. However, few studies have identified IBH as a primary disease with no apparent association with immunosuppressive diseases. The objectives of this study were to develop an animal model of IBH in commercial broilers, to demonstrate vertical transmission of fowl adenoviruses (FAdVs) in broiler breeders and to control IBH in broilers by vaccinating their parents with an inactivated FAdV vaccine. In order to develop an animal model of IBH in commercial broilers, fourteen-day old broilers were inoculated intramuscularly with 1x104 1x107 CCID50 of either FAdV x11a-like virus, two strains of FAdV-8a (FAdV-8a strain TR-59 and FAdV-8a strain T8-A) or FAdV-11strain 1047. Four days following FAdV inoculation, 5% - 15% mortality was observed and dead birds showed histologic lesions of hemorrhagic necrotizing hepatitis. This animal model reproduced the clinical disease, and pathological lesions of IBH that have been described in commercial broilers. In order to demonstrate vertical transmission of the FAdV, 35-week-old broiler breeders were inoculated with 1x106 CCID50 of either FAdV x11a-like virus, FAdV-8a strain TR-59, FAdV-8a strain T8-A or FAdV-11 strain 1047. Eggs from infected breeders were collected and hatched seven days post-inoculation. Clinical signs or mortality were not observed in parents; however broiler progeny derived from broiler breeders inoculated with FAdV-8a strain T8-A had 30% IBH mortality by seven days of age. The hexon gene loop 1 sequence of the virus isolated from affected broiler progeny showed 100% identity to FAdV-8a strain T8-A. In order to demonstrate protection of broilers against IBH by vaccination of their parents, four groups of broiler breeders were vaccinated with either FAdV-8a strain T8-A (2x107 or 2x104 CCID50) formulated with 20% oil-in-water emulsion, or FAdV x11a-like virus (2x107 or 2x104 CCID50) formulated with 20% oil-in-water emulsion at the age of 12 and 15 weeks. The control group was inoculated with 20% oil-in-water emulsion. Broiler progeny were challenged with FAdV-8a strain T8-A to study the immunoprotective effect of the vaccine. Although, survival of broilers following FAdV-8a strain T8-A challenge was not significantly different among vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups (P>0.05), immunoprotective effect was enhanced by the increase dose of FAdV antigens (P>0.05). Further studies are necessary to improve the vaccine efficacy to protect broilers against IBH.<p> In conclusion, the results of this study support the hypothesis that IBH in broilers in Canada is a vertically-transmitted primary disease with no known immunosuppressive involvement. The results also demonstrated that inactivated antigens of FAdV are able to partially protect broilers against IBH by vaccinating their parents. Further studies with different formulations, and priming the immune system of broiler breeders with live FAdV prior to vaccination with inactivated FAdV vaccines are necessary to improve the efficacy of inactivated IBH vaccine.