The primary objective of this study was to examine the impact of providing feedback with group counseling upon the employment, symptom distress, interpersonal relationships, social role, and mental health functioning of 30 individuals with disabilities receiving services at a state vocational rehabilitation agency. Utilizing a repeated measures randomized wait-list control trial design, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: treatment (feedback plus group counseling) or treatment-asusual (group counseling only). Each participant completed the Outcome Questionnaire- 45, a measure of mental health, on a weekly basis and attended a group counseling program, 1.5 hours each week, for 10 weeks at one of five different offices within a vocational rehabilitation state agency. Analyses of improved mental health functioning between the experimental and control groups failed to reach statistical significance. Analyses found three statistically significant three-way interactions between time, condition, and public benefits when interpersonal relationships (p=.025); social role performance (p=.021), and mental health functioning (p=.028) were the dependent variables. Participant ratings in the feedback condition for progress made toward employment were significantly higher than those of participants in the treatment-as-usual. Similarly, the proportion of participants employed at the end of the group counseling program was statistically significant and favored the treatment condition. Taken as a whole, results raise the possible importance of public benefits and the use of feedback and group counseling for improving employment outcomes and functioning in the areas of interpersonal relationships, social roles, and overall mental health.

Approximately 25% of households in the U.S. treat their wastewater onsite using conventional onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS). These systems typically include a septic tank or a series of septic tanks followed by a soil absorption system. They effectively remove biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS), fats and grease but are not designed to remove significant amounts of nitrogen. High nitrogen loading to coastal and ground waters can be dangerous to aquatic life and public health. Hence, there is a need for advanced onsite wastewater treatment systems that can effectively remove nitrogen. Making enhanced nitrogen removal for OWTS as our primary goal, a laboratory scale Hybrid Adsorption and Biological Treatment Systems (HABiTS) was developed and upon observation of its effective nitrogen removal capacity, a pilot demonstration study with two side-by-side HABiTS, one with recirculation and one without recirculation (only forward flow) were constructed and tested at the Northwest Regional Water Reclamation Facility in Hillsborough County (Florida). HABiTS employ biological nitrogen removal and ion exchange for effective nitrogen removal. HABiTS is a two-stage process which uses nitrification for the oxidation of ammonium to nitrate and ion exchange for ammonium adsorption that helps buffer transient loading and also acts as a biofilm carrier in its stage 1 biofilter and it uses tire-sulfur hybrid adsorption denitrification (T-SHAD) in its stage 2 biofilter. These sulfur pellets help promote sulfur oxidation denitrification (SOD) and tire chips are used for nitrate adsorption during transient loading conditions, as biofilm carriers for denitrifying bacteria, and can also be used as organic carbon source to promote heterotrophic denitrification because they leach organic carbon. For this research, HABiTS without recirculation is considered as the control system and the performance of HABiTS with recirculation was tested for its ability to further enhance nitrogen removal from HABiTS. Nitrified effluent recirculation is a common strategy employed in wastewater treatment for enhanced nitrogen removal. It is the reintroduction of semi-treated wastewater to pass through an anoxic pre-treatment chamber to achieve better quality effluent. Recirculation is said to improve and consistently remove nitrogen at any hydraulic loading rate and/or nitrogen concentration. This is because of the dilution of high BOD septic tank effluent with nitrified effluent which lowers COD:TKN ratio and also improves mass transfer of substrates in the stage 1 biofilter. Recirculation also provides some pre-denitrification in the pre-treatment chamber, thereby reducing nitrogen load on the system. The HABiTS with recirculation (R) was run at 1:1 ratio of nitrified effluent recirculation rate to the influent flow rate for 50 days, and at 3:1 ratio for the remaining period of this research (200 days). The forward flow system (FF) was run under constant conditions throughout the research and comparisons between the two systems were made for different water quality parameters (pH, DO, conductivity, alkalinity, TSS, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and various nitrogen species). The final effluent ammonium results showed that the system with recirculation removed consistently > 80% NH4+-N during 1:1 and 3:1 recirculation ratios whereas the forward flow system achieved 57% removal. Further, an average of 81% total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) removal from the system influent was seen in the recirculation system’s final effluent when compared to an average of 55% in forward flow system’s final effluent. This research explains in detail, the impact of nitrified effluent recirculation on enhanced nitrogen removal in onsite systems and the results presented in this thesis proved that nitrified effluent recirculation provides promising enhanced nitrogen removal in an onsite wastewater treatment system.

There has been much debate over many years in the Australian Federal Parliament on the implementation of a national curriculum in mathematics. In 2004, the Government, under the direction of the then Minister for Education Brendon Nelson, initiated a national mathematics program for students in lower secondary high schools and primary schools. The Australian International Centre for Excellence was commissioned to implement a pilot program and called for expressions of interest to participate from high schools across the nation. At that time I was working as the Acting Head of the Mathematics Department at a senior high school in a large Western Australian country centre. I was concerned with the content and level of difficulty in many of the textbooks that were available for our students and also the processes used in these textbooks (or by teachers) to assist students to gain mastery of the basic mathematical concepts in the Outcome Number. I decided to apply to participate in the pilot program on behalf of my school, and my application was accepted. In the first stage of the program two classes of both Year 8 and Year 9 students were selected. One of my cooperative colleagues and I found out very early that the Year 8 ICE-EM textbook was too difficult for many of these students as they lacked the skills to do much of the work in the Outcome Number. These students had very different learning experiences in their primary school mathematics, with schools and teachers placing different emphases on each of the Outcomes in mathematics. The opportunity to modify our school's Year 8 program and to implement change in the high schools' feeder primary schools occurred with the second stage of the pilot program's Transition Phases 1 and 2, due for implementation in 2007. / Twelve teachers and 329 students from the high school and feeder primary schools became involved at the second state of the pilot program. All students were provided with a textbook, and teachers were free to choose how or when these books would be used with their students. Surveys were administered to teachers and students at the beginning of the year and end of the first semester. Tests were designed and administered throughout the study and comparisons were made with the student's WAMSE (Western Australian Monitoring Standards in Education) score. WALNA (Western Australian Literacy and Numeracy Assessment) and the Department of Education and the University of Western Australia's WAMSE scores were used to investigate changes in students' achievement and progress. Interviews with teachers and students were conducted to review the pilot program and investigate anomalies in students' results. The study found differences in students' Achievement and Progress based on WAMSE scores. Most teachers who adopted the program believed that it led to improved student learning and understanding of Number concepts in mathematics. All teachers at the high school and its feeder primary schools have continued to use the ICE-EM textbooks as part of their teaching and learning program. Increased uniformity among the primary schools was beneficial for the high school's Year 8 mathematics program. The results also indicated the need for caution when using State and National testing to report on student progress and achievement.

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) is a very large organization compared to Thai standards. It generates huge incomes to a number of families, directly and indirectly. Like many airlines, the main concern with THAI and the regulatory authorities is safety because THAI is in a mass transportation business. THAI have had two accidents within a span of some six years, killing a total of 214 people. The accidents affected THAI in four key areas, namely political, economical, social and technological. This phenomenon prompted the study of aviation safety in THAI. The question that requires an answer is: “How should THAI build its protocols to enhance aviation safety?” This then became the research question. The objective of the study is to build a model suitable for THAI to enhance aviation safety, thus answering the question. Through a review of the literature within the parent disciplines, the product, process, and customers of flying activities were identified. The four processes, the MP, the HRD, the PM and the RS are recognized through rigorous search of the literature. The developments of the required seven elements of skills needed for pilot performance measurement were made.A review of study within the immediate discipline concerning Aviation Safety in THAI was carried out and the current status in THAI was defined. All of these led to the identification of research question, research objective, and research propositions. The research propositions were:• Research Proposition 1: that the management practice (MP) process receives inputs from the reporting system (RS) process. Outputs from the management practice (MP) process form inputs for the human resource development (HRD) process.• Research Proposition 2: that the human resource development (HRD) process receives inputs from the management practice (MP) process. Outputs from the human resource development (HRD) process form inputs for the performance measurement (PM) process.• Research Proposition 3: that the performance measurement (PM) process receives inputs from the human resource development (HRD) process. Outputs from the human resource development (HRD) process form inputs for the reporting system (RS) process.• Research Proposition 4: that the reporting system (RS) process receives inputs from the performance measurement (PM) process. Outputs from the reporting system (RS) process form inputs for the management practice (MP) process. • Research Proposition 5: that the individual process components identified in Research Propositions 1, 2, 3 and 4, can be consolidated into an overall, comprehensive Continual Improvement (CI) loop.Once the research propositions were established, the research design was conceived. Due to the fact that THAI is a unique airline influenced by its history of inception and by particular sets of cultures, an embedded, single case-study research method was used. Many techniques within the case-study method were employed starting from a secondary data search, direct observations, focus group interviews, elite interviews, pilot study, participant observations and in-depth interviews. Issues such as validity, reliability, sensitivity, generalizability and ethics were referred to. Issues on data processing, coding, editing, and interpreting were made and discussed.As a result of the various methods of study and the fieldwork previously mentioned, findings were derived. These were then edited, categorized, coded, tabulated and interpreted into meaningful information. Findings from the study and fieldwork supported all the propositions derived from secondary data search and literature review. Consequently the gap identified in the literature was now filled and the principal model was drawn. A slight modification was introduced in keeping with the interpretation of the findings. A recommendation was made that THAI implement policy measures and professional practices derived from the implication of the study to minimize risks in flight operations system and thus maximize safety.Based on the findings of this research, it is recommended that future studies be conducted employing a deductive, quantitative, statistical method to evaluate the model and test its theoretical implications.

The development of affirmative action strategies designed to achieve equal employment opportunity has been studied along six dimensions of functioning within four separate organisations. Three of these organisations were participants in the Federal Government's Affirmative Action Pilot Program in 1984/5, and one was not. It has been shown that change occurred in a continuous developmental sequence, here called an "Affirmative Action Continuum", within each of these six dimensions over the period of study, with each organisation following a similar sequence of movement. Exceptions occurred where an organisation made no movement at all, or where one or more of the sequential processes was omitted or displaced, in a dimension. The reasons for some of these exceptions, and some of their consequences for later action, have been explored. It has been shown that simultaneous activity occurred across several, dimensions, so that no organisation acted upon only one dimension in isolation from all others. There was some chronological sequencing between dimensions. The indicators of movement along the Affirmative Action Continuum within each dimension were used to describe the change process in each organisation. These indicators proved to be useful both in this regard, and in placing each organisation an the Affirmative Action Continuum in each dimension at two different points in time. In this way, the indicators' usefulness was shown to generalise to four very different institutions, thus suggesting applicability beyond the bounds of this particular study. It is intended that the results of this dissertation, and in particular the model of the Affirmative Action Continuum and the indicators described in Chapter Two, be used by Equal Employment Opportunity practitioners to facilitate their decision making about sequencing of activities designed to achieve equal employment oppportunity.

<p>Syftet med denna examensuppsats var att undersöka och beskriva svenska stridspiloters upplevda mentala hälsa. En enkät utformades bestående av ett skattningsbatteri med frågor om sömn och trötthet, OSLO-3, CAGE, HADS, frågor om fysiska symptom, GHQ-12 och SRE. Enkäten skickades ut till 129 JAS 39 piloter i ordinarie tjänst vid flygdivisioner i Försvarsmakten och Förvarets Materielverk (FMV). Resultatet visade att 77% av piloterna i studien bedömdes ha symptom på mild depression och 46% hade symptom på mild ångest. De flesta av de deltagande piloterna hade inte några alkoholrelaterade problem och 83% uppgav att de hade lätta fysiska besvär.</p><p>ANOVA-analysen visade att de deltagande piloterna på utbildningsförbandet i medeltal hade signifikant högre poäng på GHQ-12 än piloterna på insatsförbanden. ANOVA visade också att utbildningsförbandets piloter hade signifikant fler fysiska symptom än utvecklingsförbandens. Pearson-korrelationer mellan bakgrundsfaktorerna och de olika självskattningsdelarna i enkäten samt korrelationer mellan de olika delarna i skattningsformuläret uppvisade relativt svaga samband varav några var signifikanta. </p><p>Slutsatsen är att de svenska stridspiloterna i studien mådde sämre än vad man kunde förvänta sig med tanke på det gedigna uttagnings- och uppföljningsförfarandet. Det kan därför finnas anledning att se över den nu icke anonyma hälsouppföljningen av svenska stridspiloter eftersom den inte bedöms vara tillräcklig för att upptäcka personer med symptom på psykisk ohälsa. Detta är viktigt för att i ett tidigt skede minska och förebygga mental ohälsa inom denna yrkesgrupp, inte bara ur ett flygsäkerhetsperspektiv utan också på grund av att tidiga interventioner ger bättre resultat.</p> / <p>The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe the mental health among Swedish fighter pilots. A questionnaire comprising questions concerning sleep and fatigue, OSLO-3, CAGE, HADS, physical symptoms, GHQ-12 and SRE was presented. The questionnaire was distributed to 129 JAS 39 pilots on regular flying duty in the Swedish Air Force and the Swedish Defence Material Administration. The results indicated that 77% of the respondents were found to have mild depression and 46% had symptoms of mild anxiety.</p><p>ANOVA-analysis indicated that the pilots at the training unit on average scored significantly higher on GHQ-12 than the pilots at the fighter squadrons. ANOVA also indicated that the pilots at the training unit had significantly more physical symptoms than the pilots at the development units. Pearson correlations between background factors and the different self-evaluation parts of the questionnaire in addition to correlations between the different parts of the evaluation questionnaire were relatively weak although some of them were significant.</p><p>These findings imply that the Swedish fighter pilots, considering the rigorous selection and evaluation processes, were not as free from mental health problems as expected. Thus there is a reason to revise the follow-up study on the pilots’ mental health. It is important to detect any mental health vulnerability early, not only for maintaining high flight safety standards, but also because of the advantage of implementing early therapeutic intervention.</p>

<p>In 1994 a new Forestry Act was accepted in Sweden. One of its aims was to raise the consideration for preservation of biodiversity. Since this happened over 15 years ago there is now an interest in analyzing if the law has been effective in its purpose. In this study methods suitable for analysis are being investigated. The study contents a pilot study of methods for five parameters that can validate if the law has been followed. The fieldstudy were executed in Orsa, Dalarna, Sweden in a managed forest and where last clearcut was done after 1994. The work consisted of measuring the parameters in the field and to compare them with data from before 1994. The benefits of the parameters and the current and previous Forestry Act and their differences are discussed in the report. The parameters examined were the distribution of tree species, standing dead wood, smaller areas saved for preservation, big trees and trees with cavities/cavernous trees. All of these plus a few other variables favourable for the diversity of species in the forest are dealt with in the 30 § in the Forestry Act of 1994. The study implied that the variables reported to be favourable for biodiversity, and possible to investigate within the restrictions of this study, seemed to have increased. The results should however be interpreted with care since the study is small and the reference values sometimes were missing or covering larger areas than the field data.</p>

<p>Efter ett förslag om förändring och modernisering av lotsverksamheten lades fram, där det föreslogs att landbaserad lotsning eventuellt införs i framtiden, beslutade vi att undersöka och jämföra åsikter från verksamma inom lotsväsendet.</p><p>Det finns risk att man förlorar viktiga delar av en väldigt stor kunskapsbank, om man inte tar tillvara på denna genom att beakta lotsarnas synvinklar, vid ett utvecklande och moderniserande av lotssystemet.</p><p>Syftet var att kartlägga och kategorisera vad det finns för möjligheter och begränsningar med dagens lotssystem i förhållande till landbaserad lotsning. Vi har gjort en kvalitativ, fenomenografisk undersökning, där vi använt oss av intervjuer med öppna frågeställningar.</p><p>Det visade sig att det var lätt att se begränsningar med ett införande av landbaserad lotsning, främst på grund av att lotsarna inte anser sig kunna utföra sitt arbete på ett tillfredställande sätt. Den ekonomiska vinsten rådde det delade meningar om, men majoriteten ansåg att besparingen skulle bli obefintlig.</p> / <p>After a proposal of a reformation of the Swedish pilot system was expressed, where it proposed that shore-based pilotage will be implemented in the future, we decided to investigate and compare opinions from involved persons. There is a risk of losing important parts of a very large knowledge-base, if the pilots’ opinions are not taken into consideration, in the event of development of the pilot system.</p><p>The purpose was to examine and categorize the possibilities and limitation with the pilot system of today in relation to shore-based pilotage.</p><p>We have performed a qualitative, phenomenografic research, where we have used interviews with open questions.</p><p>It was easy to find limitations if shore-based pilotage should be implemented, mostly because the pilots did not expect to be able to perform their work in a satisfactory way. The opinions regarding the economical profit differ, but the majority thought that the savings would be nonexistent.</p>

<p>The thesis is largely built on a collection of published and submitted papers where the main focus is to analyze and optimize single-carrier adaptive coded modulation systems with and without antenna diversity. Multidimensional trellis codes are used as component codes. The majority of the analysis is done with both estimation and prediction errors being incorporated. Both channel estimation and prediction are performed using a pilot-symbol-assisted modulation scheme. Thus, known pilot symbols (overhead information) must be transmitted; which consumes power and also degrades system spectral efficiency. Both power consumption and pilot insertion frequency are optimized such that they are kept at necessary values to maximize system throughput without sacrificing the error rate performance. The results show that efficient and reliable system performance can be achieved over a wide range of the considered average channel quality. Going from a single-input single-output system to both spatially uncorrelated and correlated single-input multiple-ouput (SIMO) systems, and further to an uncorrelated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) diversity system, is the evolution of the thesis. In the SIMO case, maximum ratio combining is used to combine the incoming signals, whereas the signals are space-time combined in the MIMO diversity system. The multiple-input single-output system comes out as a special case of a MIMO system. Besides the spatially uncorrelated antenna array, the effect of spatial correlation is also considered in the SIMO case. In this case, only prediction error is considered and channel estimation is assumed to be perfect. At first, the impact of spatial correlation in a predicted system originally designed to operate on uncorrelated channels is quanitifed. Then, a maximum a posteriori (MAP)-optimal “space-time predictor” is derived to take spatial correlation into account. As expected, the results show that the throughput is still lower than the uncorrelated system, but the degradation is decreased when the MAP-optimal space-time predictor is used. Thus, by exploiting the correlation properly, the degradation can be reduced. By numerical examples, we demonstrate the potential effect of limiting the predictor complexity, of fixing the pilot spacing, as well as of assuming perfect estimation. The two first simplifications imply lower system complexity and feedback rate, whereas the last assumption is usually made to ease the mathematical analysis. The numerical examples indicate that all the simplifications can be done without serious impact on the predicted system performance.</p>

<p>The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is an international framework on sound chemicals management with the objective that “by the year 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on the environment and human health”. SAICM was adopted at the International Conference on Chemicals Management in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in February 2006. To prepare countries to be able to implement SAICM the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is currently running Pilot Projects in three developing countries and one county with economy in transition: Belarus, Pakistan, Tanzania and Panama. Between October and December 2007 we were doing a Minor Field Study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, interviewing people involved in the implementation of their Pilot Project which is running from 2006-2009. Our paper consists of two parts, one descriptive and one analysing. In the first part we describe the initiation, the formulation, the implementation and the evaluation of SAICM and the Pilot Project in Tanzania and in the second part we analyse opportunities and hindrances for a successful implementation of the Pilot Project and SAICM in Tanzania. How is the UN governing the implementation, what resources of finances, knowledge, institutions and time does Tanzania have and how is the implementation influenced by different actors interests? We argue that the there is mixture of the top-down and the bottom-up models and that this mixture is fruitful, we argue that Tanzania has enough finances, knowledge and time to implement SAICM but lack institutions, and finally that the different interests are not too various to harm the process.</p>