This thesis explores homeless and street involved youth’s experiences of being kicked out from various programs and family situations and what draws them back. Using secondary data analysis from the Pathways to Resilience study, I examine the quantitative and qualitative data to determine youth’s risk and resilience processes, their past service use history, and their positive and negative experiences within these services. Homeless youth experience similar levels of risk as other high risk youth, higher individual resilience and prosocial behaviours but lower overall resilience and relationship to caregivers. Youth felt they were kicked out of services primarily due to minor rule infractions or due to their own lack of engagement with the service. Participants discussed critical aspects of engaging with service providers including whether services met their basic needs and whether relationships with staff were respectful, trusting, accepting, and non-judgmental. The implications for service design and delivery are discussed.

The world today consists of a global economy, with highly competitive markets in every country. In this arena companies are faced with continually declining profit margins, having to keep costs to a minimal, as well as continually developing Information Systems and Technology. All of these factors have a snowball effect on every other country in the world, providing challenges where there were none before. Companies start to focus on their core competencies, striving to be a benchmark in their industries. All their energies, resources and capital need to be channeled in this direction if they are to succeed. This then begs the question: Who will focus on these companies' non-core functions? The answer is a simpler one - a company whose core business it is to perform another company's non-core functions. One only needs to choose the third party service provider best suited to the company, and outsource your non-core functions to them. These third party service providers can easily incorporate a company's functions into their supply chains, and perform them more efficiently than the outsourcing company. But why focus on outsourcing of the logistics function (which entails transportation, warehousing and 10gisticaIIT)? Internationally this function has been the starting point of outsourcing, and is really only in its infant stages in South Africa. The research will show that even today only some of the areas of this function are being outsourced, whilst the others are still kept in-house. This study will show if there are underlying factors influencing the decision of companies to either outsource or retain their logistics function in-house. The perceived benefits of these two options are also discussed. This study is a formal one. Stated hypotheses will be statistically tested using parametric as well as non-parametric measures. Primary data will be collected through a questionnaire. All relevant literature will be examined and discussed in detail to provide the necessary background. Lastly, the results and findings of the study will be discussed, and recommendations will be made as to viable options in the outsourcing arena. These recommendations should be attempted if South Africa is to catch up with trends in the international outsourcing arena. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2004.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the strategic outsourcing of the laboratory at Blendcor. The organization and the relevant theory have been introduced in the introductory chapter. This also,formulated the problem statement and the objectives of the study. The structure of the study is summarized in this section. The second chapter builds the theory and the model to analyse the strategic problem at hand. This chapter start by defining the key success factors in the hope of identifying the organizational resources that excel on these, thus become core competences. In the light of this, a discrepancy is identified as a shortfall of company resources. This calls for the need of outsourcing the activity; the theory of contracting is thus discussed. The theoretical review closes off with the organizational culture, which is mostly affected by changes brought to the company by outsourcing. The strategy evaluation model is then developed. The third chapter takes advantage of the secondary data available, and a case study is formulated on these. The major portion is made from the company magazines and data from a consultant's study. However, observations were included to some extent. Chapter four evaluates the laboratory outsourcing strategy using the model developed in chapter two. The case study serves as a source of data. The theory from chapter two provides most of the tools used. The last chapter concludes by giving the possible solutions to the objectives of the study. The outsourcing of the laboratory is disapproved. The poor performance can be attributed to the inefficiencies in the value chain activities and poor organizational culture that does not support strategy implementation. It is thus suggested that turnaround-oriented strategies are implemented and cultural transformation is effected. / Thesis (MBA)- University of Natal, 2003.

The aim of the study is to assess whether or not the outsourcing of production at the Lever Ponds Maydon Wharf factory has been successful from a financial and operational perspective. Chapter one gives a background as to why outsourcing has been essential at the Maydon Wharf factory. The chapter also outlines what potential dangers Lever Ponds may be exposed to as a result of outsourcing production to outsourcing companies. Chapter two is a literature review of studies that have been undertaken in instances where production has been outsourced. Chapter three outlines the research methodology of the study. Chapter four gives a numerical breakdown and a brief overview of the findings. Chapter five is a detailed discussion of the findings. Chapter six sets out the recommendations of the study and provides a conclusion to the study. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This study examines the coming out process for transgendered individuals using the framework of Austin's speech act: the locutionary force, the illocutionary force, and the perlocutionary force. A grounded theory analysis of 43 letters in two different Internet databases revealed similarities and differences in the coming out process for transgendered individuals, compared to what we know about the process for gay and lesbian people. Similarities were found in all three acts: labels and scripts are used in the locutionary act; confession, education, affirmation and remorse are used as framing strategies in the illocutionary act; and rejection and acknowledgement are addressed in the perlocutionary act. Unique aspects of the coming out process for transgendered individuals include the importance of and reliance on labels in the locutionary act, education in the illocutionary act, and the visualization and cooperation of others in the perlocutionary act. These findings have a number of important practical and theoretical implications for interpersonal relationships and scholarship. / Department of Communication Studies

The research was aimed at investigating the effects of teacher burnout in community junior secondary schools in the Southern Region of Botswana. The research question focused on investigating the effects of teacher burnout on teacher performance, physical wellbeing and social interaction with colleagues and community. To investigate these effects the researcher started by identifying the causes of teacher burnout and then obtained responses from school teachers on how teacher burnout is affecting them. Some possible remedies and preventative/control measures were also suggested. A sample of l 00 teachers and administrators was chosen at random from both rural and urban-based schools in the Southern District of Botswana. The findings revealed that the majority of teachers (96%) indicated that teacher burnout is caused by poor career opportunities in the teaching field. 92% cited work overload as another cause of teacher burnout. The same proportion blame poor work relations as another cause of teacher burnout. The findings also revealed how teacher burnout can be prevented/controlled. The majority of teachers agreed (92%) that teacher burnout can be prevented/controlled by discussing problems with professional colleagues whist 89% agreed that teacher burnout can be prevented by organizing time and setting priorities. All (100"/o) of respondents agreed that school administrators can assist teachers prevent/control burnout by providing more paraprofessionals/support staff/clerical assistants and 99% agreed that providing more educational opportunities to learn about students with behavioural disorders and program action. 64% of respondents agreed that if left unattended, teacher burnout can lead to low productivity of the teacher. 75% of respondents agreed that if teacher burnout is left unattended it can lead to poor performance in terms of school results. The majority of teachers agreed that parents have a role to play on the issue of teacher burnout. / (M. Ed.) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2006

Objective – Some of the most vulnerable children and youths in our country are those in out of home care, and these children demonstrate higher rates of psychopathology and fare more poorly in school and in social relationships than their peers. Typically, when studying at risk populations, negative outcomes are examined, thereby ignoring those who do well despite their vulnerability. These children, who demonstrate positive patterns of functioning and development despite their exposure to adversity, are considered resilient. The objective of this study was to identify factors associated with a resilient outcome among children and youths in out of home care. Method – The study sample was comprised of 417 children 10 to 15 years old in Ontario who had been removed from their homes of origin and placed in out of home care. Predictor variables were selected based on previous research findings in the area of resilient outcome. In the cross-sectional study, a series of sequential logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with a resilient outcome among children in out of home care. These children were then followed one year later. In the longitudinal study, another series of sequential logistic regression analyses were used to identify variables that were related to future resilient outcomes among the same children in out of home care. Results – The findings showed that many of the independent variables predicted resilient outcome on the different dimensions. Furthermore, overall resilient outcome was best predicted by the foster parental report of high sociability. Conclusion – The findings in the present study confirmed that there exists a subset of resilient children among children in out of home care. The findings allowed for the identification of some factors related to resilient outcome among this population. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

How to achieve a quality improvement for individual post-operative pain treatment is an important issue. PAIN-OUT is a multinational research project and its aim is to build functional software for clinicians with post-operative pain management. This paper presents a specification for a UI that is intended for physicians to intuitively access the database and to help them in decision making for the postoperative pain treatment. The interface design is tailored for PAIN-OUT data and combines the UI design knowledge and the physicians’ need. In order to meet the needs, and to implement the design into current PAIN-OUT computer aided system, the mockup design is developed as a HTML’s prototype. To verify the design’s performance, we connect the case library and the interface design in Matlab to see the work out. We also made a small demonstration video for the design and asked the expert from PAIN-OUT to offer some professional opinions.

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The goal of this study was to investigate self-efficacy and goal choice among acting-out adolescents in comparison to nonacting-out adolescents. One hundred and sixteen adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 participated. The adolescents were categorized as either acting-out or nonacting-out on the basis of their score on the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher's Report Form (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1986), as well as on corroborated reports made by school administrators. Fifty-eight acting-out and 58 nonacting-out adolescents completed a questionnaire packet containing measures of self-efficacy, locus of control, self-mage, and goal choice. In addition, each adolescent was interviewed and administered a brief intelligence measure. With all demographic variables covaried, the primary findings of the study were that acting-out as compared to nonacting-out adolescents experienced more incidents of failure, displayed lower general self-efficacy scores, greater external loci of control, and chose goals that were vague or less specific. The negative experiences associated with behavioral problems, such as academic failure, apparently lower adolescents' self-beliefs and abilities to specify their goals. Despite their experiential differences, however, acting-out and nonacting-out adolescents displayed similar levels of social self-efficacy, real self-image, and ideal self-image, as well as similar goal setting abilities in areas other than goal specificity. All adolescents chose a comparable number of goals, as well as comparable levels of goal difficulty, goal commitment, and procedural knowledge. The stage of adolescence with its many changes, demands, and uncertainties apparently leaves most youths with comparable self-images and goal setting abilities, regardless of whether or not they have negative experiences of social and academic failure.