Research has indicated that there is a worldwide increase in the numbers of sexual offenders brought before court in the last two decades as well as an increase in recidivism after imprisonment of sexual offenders. It was found that imprisonment is not the only effective sentence option for sexual offenders and that there are certain categories of sexual offenders that can be rehabilitated more effectively within the community while serving a community-based sentence like correctional supervision. Research has also shown that the risk of re-offending can be decreased by such a sentence. In order for courts to consider correctional supervision as sentence for certain sexual offenders they request pre-sentence assessment reports from social workers to assist them to determine the suitable offenders for this sentence option. The court has certain expectations from social workers in terms of these pre-sentence assessments that are not always met. Amongst other factors, this is caused by the difference in approach between social workers and judicial officials as well as the different goals each profession has in terms of sexual offenders. The problems and needs of social workers with the pre-sentence assessment of sexual offenders were explored in this study as well as the expectations and problems of judicial officials in this regard. Social workers indicated that they lack certain skills, knowledge and confidence as well as professional support and resources to compile effective pre-sentence reports. Judicial officials expect more intensive and comprehensive assessments that focus on the determination of risk of re-offending and the risk to the community. In order to address the problems and needs of both the social workers and judicial officials, suggestions for the improvement of co-operation and understanding of the two different approaches were made as well as guidelines for social workers, trainers and supervisors to enable social workers to present more effective pre-sentence assessments to courts. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

The relevance of motivation has saturated many physical literacy definitions (Mandigo et al., 2006); however, the study of motivation in this context has generated minimal attention. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore motivation with respect to physical literacy related to self-reported variety of physical activity engagement and predilection towards physical activity. Participants included 218 male and female students in grades 4-6. Deci and Ryan’s (1985) basic needs theory guided a thematic analysis of open-ended questions from the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy. Results indicated participants’ engagement in a variety of physical activities, and predilection towards physical activity was influenced by self-reported need satisfaction. Competence related more to engagement in a wide variety of physical activities while relatedness was found to relate more to predilection towards physical activity. Children who engaged in their physical activities for fun, and health benefits on average participated in a greater variety of physical activities.

Gasification is a promising technique for transforming solid biomass into a gas that can be used to produce renewable heat, power, fuels or chemicals. Biomass materials, such as forestry residues, can be high moisture, heterogeneous mixtures with low bulk density - properties that make them difficult to handle and convert. Consequently, this means that feedstock pre-treatment is usually necessary in order to facilitate its conversion by gasification. Pre-treatments methods, which include comminution, drying, pelletization, torrefaction, or carbonization will affect the properties of the biomass which will affect their gasification in a fluidized bed. The objective of this thesis was to determine how biomass pre-treatment can influence gasification in a fluidized bed. A single forestry residue was processed using five pre-treatment process levels: sieving (as a surrogate for comminution), drying (moisture content), pelletization, torrefaction, and carbonization. The fractions derived from these processes were gasified in a small pilot-scale air blown bubbling fluidized bed gasifier (feed rate 8 – 25 kg/h). The particle size and form had an impact on the gas composition, tar content, and cold gas efficiency of the gasification. Over the conditions tested, the finest fraction produced a gas with a H2/CO ratio of 0.36 – 0.47 containing 7 – 59 g/m3 tar (gravimetric) at a cold gas efficiency of 30 - 41%. The pellets on the other hand yielded a gas with a H2/CO ratio of 0.89 - 1.14, containing 3 – 37 g/m3 tar (gravimetric) at a cold gas efficiency of 41 – 60%. Drying, torrefaction and carbonization also had an impact on the gasification performance. Carbonization was able to reduce the yield of tar (as measured by gas chromatography) by more than 95% relative to the parent material. Finally, four different forestry residues were gasified in a large pilot-scale bubbling fluidized bed with air and steam-oxygen mixtures (feed rate 200 – 245 kg/h) in order to assess whether the comminution effect could be observed at the large scale. One feedstock with a significant portion of small particles showed the expected effects compared to the feed materials with large feed particles: lower H2/CO ratio, greater tar yield, lower cold gas efficiency while the other feed material containing a substantial amount of small particles did not show these effects.

To determine the effects of torso cooling with ice (ICE) or water-perfused (WP) vests during rest and warm-up on subsequent 1500 m time trial rowing performance in the heat. Eight male rowers (23 ± 4 y) completed 3 sessions on an ergometer in an environmental chamber (38ºC, 47% RH) 1 week apart. Pre-cooling was applied during rest (45 min) and warm-up (30 min) in 2 trials using ICE or WP vests, but not in the control condition (CON). Rectal (Tre) and skin (Tsk) temperature, HR, RPE, thermal comfort (TC) and sensation (TS) were monitored throughout. HR, RPE or TS were not different between conditions. TC, Tre and Tsk were lower in WP and ICE than CON post warm-up (P<0.05). The reduction in strain was reflected by increased power output during the 1500 m time trial in ICE (11±1.2 %) and WP (9.6±1.1%) compared to CON (P<0.05). Pre-cooling with ICE or WP vests enhanced performance in a 1500 m rowing time trial and power output was higher from the onset.

No description available.

No description available.

Colon cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in the world. It kills approximately 529,000 people annually and around two thirds of these deaths are in the developed world. These figures can be attributed to the fact that colorectal cancers are well advanced before they are detected. Effective prevention of the disease is early detection and removal of pre-cancerous polyps. In cases where cancer has already developed, early detection still significantly improves the chances of cure by surgically removing the cancer before the disease is able to metastasise. However, in metastatic colorectal cancers, in order to ascertain an effective treatment regimen and determine the prognosis of a patient after surgery a prognostic tool that accurately portrays the extent of the disease needs to be developed. Currently, the most commonly used prognostic tool to assess colorectal cancer spread is the clinicopathological staging system. However, there is a need for additional markers of metastasis as nearly one-third of patients with a clinical diagnosis of Dukes' B, a commonly used pathological staging system for colorectal cancer prognosis, will die of the disease despite complete resection of the primary tumour. In several human cancers such as breast, prostate and the lung, tumour vascularity has been shown to be of prognostic value. However, studies correlating the significance of the number of tumour vessels to prognosis in colorectal cancers are relatively lacking or show conflicting results. Moreover, it is not yet fully understood if factors involved in the complicated cascade of tumour blood vessel formation (tumour angiogenesis), such as proteases cathepsin B and dipeptidyl peptidase IV aid colorectal cancer progression. Two of the most potent angiogenic growth factors: vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) playa significant role in the development of tumour vessels; however, their influence on the production of these proteases is not clear. Therefore, this study set out to i) establish a reliable method to quantify colorectal tumour vessels ii) to assess the correlation between vessel counts and prognostic parameters associated with metastasis iii) to ascertain the pattern of spatial distribution of tumour vessels in order to defme the relationship between the positions of the vessels in relation to areas of tumour growth iv) investigate the levels of the enzyme expression of tumour associated proteases cathepsin B and dipeptidyl peptidase IV, at both protein and mRNA level, in colorectal tumours of varying clinicopathological grades and to v) assess the influence of VEGF and bFGF on CB and DPPIV proteolytic enzyme activity in human colon, rectal cancer cells and normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The study established that an effective method to examine tumour vascularity, was by immunolocalising tumour endothelial cells by CD31 and quantifying all of stained vessels present within each cross-sectional area. As a result of tumour endothelial cell marker assessment it was noted that CD34 was highly specific to certain vessels and distinctly immunonegative to others and that the same vessels were positive to CD31. These vessels were morphologically assessed by using the standard histological criteria identified as lymph vessels. Tumour blood and lymph vessels were quantified and a positive correlation to prognostic parameters relating to cancer spread was identified. The pattern of distribution of colorectal tumour vessels was also examined and a distinct pattern was observed in metastatic tumours with greater numbers of vessels in the peripheral regions and the invasive fronts. Qualitative analysis of protease expression and mRNA intensity, in colorectal tumours, revealed increased levels of CB and DPPIV in tumours with clinicopathological parameters associated with metastasis. mRNA localization near tumour vessels highlighted the potential for, not only cancer cells but also tumour endothelial cells, to produce proteolytic enzymes to aid the process of tumour angiogenesis and hence tumour growth and metastasis. The study also demonstrated that the angiogenic factors VEGF and bFGF up-regulated CB and DPPIV activity in human colon, rectal cancer cells and normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells.The presence of tumour lymph vessels and their positive correlation to metastatic parameters signifies an important role for such vessels in the process of colorectal cancer spread. The positive relationship of tumour blood vessels to parameters associated with metastasis re-instates the important role of tumour angiogenesis in colorectal cancer. Other factors that were investigated such as tumour associated proteases CB and DPPIV and the influence of the potent angiogenic proteins upon their activity suggests that these factors have a direct role in colorectal cancer metastasis. Therefore, it can be concluded from the results of this thesis that tumour blood vessel counts can be used as a reliable prognostic marker in colorectal cancer. Tumour angiogenic factors as well as the colorectal tumour lymph vessels have the potential to be used as additional prognostic markers in clinical prognostic evaluations. This has important implications in allowing clinicians to accurately assess post-operative survival rates and to devise an effective treatment regimen in order to prolong the lives and possibly cure colorectal cancer patients.

The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of how parents of children in need of special support have experienced their interaction with the pre-school. Our three main areas of interest were to investigate how several parents experienced their contact with the pre-school, if there were any experienced factors that had played a part in the contact with the pre-school and if we could conclude anything about how the curriculum had been followed in these cases, with assistance of the parents’ experiences. Our study is qualitative and we chose to interview six parents. We both participated in all of the interviews. The theoretical base of this study is rooted in the phenomenological theory and we also used the framework factor theory to complement our analysis. One of our conclusions was that the parents expressed so many different experiences that we decide not to try compare them in general. On the other hand, all of the parents expressed that they were the ones who knew their children best and due to that, another conclusion that we interpreted was that the pre-school educators should pay attention to the parents so as to ensure that their contact would work as well as possible.

Pollen and charcoal percentage and concentration analyses have been conducted upon several upland peat profiles of late Flandrian II and early Flandrian III age at North Gill, North York Moors, where earlier research had proven recurrent major pre Elm Decline woodland disturbance, supported in one profile by radiocarbon dating. Fine temporal resolution pollen analysis (FRPA) involving the use of contiguous millimetre sampling was applied to Flandrian II disturbance phases at five of the North Gill profiles. At North Gill 1A a further phase of disturbance near the end of Flandrian II was examined using FRPA to study evidence of pre Elm Decline agricultural activity, and at this profile both the horizontal and vertical resolution limits of the technique were tested by progressively finer sub-sampling. The millimetre level FRPA analyses showed that each of the examined pre Elm Decline disturbance phases was an aggregate feature, composed of a number of smaller sub-phases, the ecological effects of which in terms of spatially-precise woodland successions and community structures were assessed and contrasted. Inter-profile spatial comparison of the ecology of woodland disturbances has been made at both FRPA and conventional scales of temporal resolution. FRPA study of the late Flandrian II disturbance phase at North Gill 1A showed that cereal cultivation had occurred prior to the Elm Decline as part of a multi-phase period of agricultural land-use activity. The high resolution spatial and temporal data from North Gill have shown FRPA to be a most sensitive palaeoecological technique, and are discussed in relation to the effects of disturbance upon mire and woodland ecosystems, Mesolithic land-use, pre Elm Decline cereal cultivation and early Neolithic land-use.

Purpose and methods: Effective parental education about newborn screening (NBS) may help to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of screening. We investigated experiences, knowledge and opinions regarding NBS education among Ontario mothers. Mothers whose infants recently received NBS were invited to complete a mailed survey (n=1712). Results: Of the 750 participants, 93% recalled their infant receiving NBS, while 69% recalled receiving information about NBS. Of this group, fewer than 50% reported receiving information prenatally, yet a majority of mothers (64%) viewed this as the most important time for education. Those who received information prenatally reported higher satisfaction (OR 2.4). The 40% of mothers who recalled being informed about the meaning of results had higher knowledge about NBS (OR 2.7) and reported higher satisfaction (OR 4.2). Conclusions: Parental education about NBS could place greater emphasis on the prenatal period and on fostering understanding about the meaning of results.