Lin, Jessey. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-80). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.

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Throughout history various discriminatory inequalities have appeared which are based on traditional beliefs and stereotype principles. As with many other social structures, this has brought with it the challenge of overcoming these inequalities in order to empower those afflicted by unfair treatment and to eradicate both the social and economic effects it has had on society at large. Of the many different groups that have been discriminated against, often for reasons of race and belief, one of the most discriminated against is women. This is clear when one takes into account the numerous struggles over the course of time women faced for the right to take part in the very basic roles of society. The right to vote, the right to freedom of speech and even the simple freedom for women not to have their attire prescribed by what their culture deems socially acceptable. When taking this into account, it comes as no surprise that women have to overcome enormous obstacles when competing for fair employment. Even today the challenges persist in our well-developed and socially advanced labour market. The employment of women in the mining industry serves as the ideal example of current inequalities that need to be overcome if we are to reap both the social and economic rewards of the equal employment of women. The objective of this study is to identify and discuss these challenges, identify how to overcome them, the benefits of doing so and the disadvantages and repercussions of not addressing them. The findings from the empirical study, based on the sample size of 65 women currently employed in the mining sector (n=65), which have been subdivided into various categories, enabled the researcher to draw conclusions and make recommendations. The challenges that were mainly identified included health and safety, recruitment and training, retention strategy and change management. Health and safety challenges refer to women‟s perceived vulnerability in a physically demanding environment. The recruitment and training of women and the challenges that organisations face when recruiting from small skills pools require organisations to develop women‟s skills for the mutual benefit of both women and the organisation. These challenges may be proliferate due to the additional challenges that organisations face when attempting to retain the skills they have developed and the investment they have made. The resistance to change that exists within large mining organisations when women are introduced into environments previously reserved for men needs to be strategically managed. In conclusion, it was found that involving the Human Resource to implement various strategies from the recruitment of women in mining, to the development, retention and the placement of women in senior positions as well as the monitoring and constant evaluation of the progress of these strategies, the current challenges as set out above can be overcome. Furthermore, it has been concluded that it greatly depends on the top and core management of companies in the mining sector to assist in the implementation of various strategies to have these feats succeed. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Throughout history various discriminatory inequalities have appeared which are based on traditional beliefs and stereotype principles. As with many other social structures, this has brought with it the challenge of overcoming these inequalities in order to empower those afflicted by unfair treatment and to eradicate both the social and economic effects it has had on society at large. Of the many different groups that have been discriminated against, often for reasons of race and belief, one of the most discriminated against is women. This is clear when one takes into account the numerous struggles over the course of time women faced for the right to take part in the very basic roles of society. The right to vote, the right to freedom of speech and even the simple freedom for women not to have their attire prescribed by what their culture deems socially acceptable. When taking this into account, it comes as no surprise that women have to overcome enormous obstacles when competing for fair employment. Even today the challenges persist in our well-developed and socially advanced labour market. The employment of women in the mining industry serves as the ideal example of current inequalities that need to be overcome if we are to reap both the social and economic rewards of the equal employment of women. The objective of this study is to identify and discuss these challenges, identify how to overcome them, the benefits of doing so and the disadvantages and repercussions of not addressing them. The findings from the empirical study, based on the sample size of 65 women currently employed in the mining sector (n=65), which have been subdivided into various categories, enabled the researcher to draw conclusions and make recommendations. The challenges that were mainly identified included health and safety, recruitment and training, retention strategy and change management. Health and safety challenges refer to women‟s perceived vulnerability in a physically demanding environment. The recruitment and training of women and the challenges that organisations face when recruiting from small skills pools require organisations to develop women‟s skills for the mutual benefit of both women and the organisation. These challenges may be proliferate due to the additional challenges that organisations face when attempting to retain the skills they have developed and the investment they have made. The resistance to change that exists within large mining organisations when women are introduced into environments previously reserved for men needs to be strategically managed. In conclusion, it was found that involving the Human Resource to implement various strategies from the recruitment of women in mining, to the development, retention and the placement of women in senior positions as well as the monitoring and constant evaluation of the progress of these strategies, the current challenges as set out above can be overcome. Furthermore, it has been concluded that it greatly depends on the top and core management of companies in the mining sector to assist in the implementation of various strategies to have these feats succeed. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This thesis is concerned with two different problems in harmonic analysis: the multilinear Kakeya theorem, and Wolff-type inequalities for paraboloids. Chapter 1 gives an overview of both of these problems. In Chapter 2 we investigate an important special case of the multilinear Kakeya theorem, the so-called “bush example”. While the endpoint case of the multilinear Kakeya theorem was recently proved by Guth, the proof is highly abstract; our aim is to provide a more elementary proof in this special case. This is achieved for a significant part of the three-dimensional case in the main result of the chapter. Chapter 3 is a study of the endpoint case of a mixed-norm Wolff-type inequality for the paraboloid. The main result adapts an example of Bourgain to show that the endpoint inequality cannot hold with an absolute constant; there must be a dependence on the thickening of the paraboloid. The remainder of the chapter is a series of case studies, through which we establish positive endpoint results for certain classes of function, as well as indicating specific examples which need to be better understood in order to obtain the full endpoint result.

This thesis investigates some inequalities and some relationships between function properties and integral properties.

Chan, Chi Ming. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-125). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

This thesis investigates issues related to gender inequalities and scarring effects in school to work transitions. The first chapter analyses the gender earnings gap among Italian college graduates at the beginning of their careers. Thanks to the richness of the dataset used I am able to control for a large set of variables related to individuals' educational and family background, as well as personality traits. The main finding is that the content of the college degree course is the most signicant variable in explaining the earnings gender differentials of young workers. In particular I show that female sorting in college majors characterised by a low maths content explains between 13 and 16% of the earnings gender gap. Motivated by this result, in Chapter 2 I investigate the determinants of gender gaps in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduation rates, with an emphasis on family, cultural and school influences. I show that half of the gap is attributed to the gender difference in maths and science content of the high school curriculum. The results indicate that in Italy the issue of the gender gap in STEM graduation has its roots in a gendered choice that originates many years before. The final chapter analyses the extent to which the mismatch of demand and supply of skills that young workers face when they enter the labour market upon completing education affects their careers. Regression results show that there is a long lasting negative effect of these initial conditions on labour market outcomes. The evidence is suggestive of a `trickle down unemployment' phenomenon, namely that high-skill workers try to escape strong competition from their high-skill peers by taking jobs for which a lower level of education is required, moving down the occupational ladder.

In approximation theory, three classical types of results are direct theorems, Bernstein inequalities, and inverse theorems. In this paper, we include results about radial basis function (RBF) approximation from all three classes. Bernstein inequalities are a recent development in the theory of RBF approximation, and on Rd, only L2 results are known for RBFs with algebraically decaying Fourier transforms (e.g. the Sobolev splines and thin-plate splines). We will therefore extend what is known by establishing Lp Bernstein inequalities for RBF networks on Rd. These inequalities involve bounding a Bessel-potential norm of an RBF network by its corresponding Lp norm in terms of the separation radius associated with the network. While Bernstein inequalities have a variety of applications in approximation theory, they are most commonly used to prove inverse theorems. Therefore, using the Lp Bernstein inequalities for RBF approximants, we will establish the corresponding inverse theorems. The direct theorems of this paper relate to approximation in Lp(Rd) by RBFs which are perturbations of Green's functions. Results of this type are known for certain compact domains, and results have recently been derived for approximation in Lp(Rd) by RBFs that are Green's functions. Therefore, we will prove that known results for approximation in Lp(Rd) hold for a larger class of RBFs. We will then show how this result can be used to derive rates for approximation by Wendland functions.

There is a well-established relationship between socioeconomic position (SEP) and health among older adults, but a short-coming of existing research is its failure to link the SEP-health relationship in later life to the gendered histories of work and family life, or the policy contexts in which these histories unfold. Drawing on the life course perspective and welfare state theory, this research investigates: the dominant patterns of labour market and family experiences over the life course for current cohorts of older adults in Britain; whether health dynamics among older adults vary by gender and life course experiences; and whether SEP and social roles at age 65 mediate these relationships. The data come from a sample of individuals born between 1927 and 1940 participating in the British Household Panel Survey (N=1552). I first examined life course experiences in the labour market and the family from young adulthood to retirement age using a two-stage latent class analysis. Theoretical considerations, along with indices of model fit, suggested that four latent life paths broadly characterized the experiences of the older adults in this sample. Consistent with the social policy context in Britain in the post-World War II years, I found evidence of distinct gender patterns in role configurations at various points across the life course and in the life pathways that link these experiences over time. In the second part of the analysis, I assessed health dynamics using latent growth curve models. Only mental health dynamics were patterned by life course histories, and SEP at age 65 mediated part of this relationship. The life course histories did not have an independent influence on trajectories of chronic health problems or self-assessed health. These findings are considered in the context of our current understanding of health dynamics among older adults, including gender differences and their relationship to SEP.