Over the past twenty years, parental choice has become the favoured Government policy governing school allocation and the dominant legislative approach for improving educational attainment. The existing sociological research on school choice has primarily focused on the ways in which families of different socioeconomic backgrounds have engaged with the process of listing preferences for secondary schools; while class has been emphasised, the choice processes of ethnic minorities have received little attention. Yet the persistent educational challenges faced by Afro-Caribbean students across class boundaries since the early years of migration to England raise questions about whether choice policies’ promise of improved academic performance extends to all ethnic groups. This study focuses on Afro-Caribbean families and their engagement with the process of selecting secondary schools in Birmingham. Twenty individual families in semi-structured interviews and ten additional mothers in two focus groups shared their experiences of listing school preferences. To develop a fuller understanding of how these Afro-Caribbean families made their school choices, this study draws upon Courtney Bell’s (2005) application of ‘choice sets’ to education. Families’ choice sets – the schools which they perceived to be available options – were shaped by various factors, including past school experiences, the schools available in the local authority, and Birmingham’s school allocation criteria. Additionally, geographic considerations, the ethnic mix of a schools’ student population, and families’ access to social networks also influenced which schools families saw as possibilities. Ultimately, while there was no single ‘Afro-Caribbean’ way of selecting schools, this study highlights the circumstances and structures faced by many Afro-Caribbean families which constrained their choice sets, and consequently, the schools to which their children were allocated. Though this thesis is limited in its generalisability, its conclusions lay the foundations for future research into the ways in which ethnic identity is lived in the educational context.

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Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Copyright aspects of webpages protection of computer programmes and its present statutory provisions governed by Act number 121/2000 Sb., of the copyright and rights related to copyright (Copyright Act), and its extension and application on one of the fastest developing area of law, such as websites and web presentations. Another important objective of this thesis is the critical analysis and application of the most recent judgements of Czech and foreign courts and also judgements of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the area of computer programmes and internet law itself. First chapter deals with the history and development of the copyright with particular focus on protection of computer programmes, databases and legal aspects of behaviour on the internet, respectively World Wide Web. Second chapter is focused on definition of terms which are defined to be used in the following chapters in purpose of application of provisions of the Copyright Act. Chapter also provides detailed description of functioning of web presentations and description of its unique parts which create the web presentation itself. The following chapter applies the conditions of statutory law and the most recent jurisprudence in the area of websites and the Internet on web presentations. First part of the chapter...

The relationship between private and public enforcement of cartel law has been heavily discussed in the recent years, both in legal doctrine and political circles. The European Commission has come up with various initiatives in order to promote and support changes in the legal orders of the EU Member States, which would make the private enforcement of cartel law easier and more accessible, especially for consumers, but for other subjects impaired by the violation of competition rules as well. However, this effort needs to be balanced with the existing system of public enforcement, notably with the established and well-funcioning leniency programmes. A strenghtened "private pillar" must not cause any damage to the exisitng "public pillar". Can private enforcement be an efficient complement to the hitherto system (predominantly public), and if so, where are the limits of it? On one hand, the support of private enforcement could discourage cartelists to participate in the leniency programmes, because the possible economic benefits (exemption from fines) might not outweigh the losses (huge amounts paid on damages in connection with follow-on actions). On the other hand, it has been argued that private enforcement is deeply underdeveloped in the European Union and no ideas of the European Commission drawing...

La vérification de programmes avec des calculs sur les nombres à virgule flottante est une étape très importante dans le développement de logiciels critiques. Les calculs sur les nombres flottants sont généralement imprécis, et peuvent dans certains cas diverger par rapport au résultat attendu sur les nombres réels. L’objectif de cette thèse est de concevoir un solveur de contraintes sur les nombres à virgule flottante dédié à la vérification de programmes. Nous présentons dans ce manuscrit une nouvelle méthode de résolution de contraintes sur les flottants. Cette méthode se base principalement sur la sur-approximation des contraintes sur les flottants par des contraintes sur les réels. Cette sur-approximation doit être conservative des solutions sur les flottants. Les contraintes obtenues sont ensuite résolues par un solveur de contraintes sur les réels. Nous avons proposé un algorithme de filtrage des domaines sur les flottants basé sur le concept de la sur-approximation qui utilise des techniques de programmation linéaire. Nous avons aussi proposé une méthode de recherche de solutions basée sur des heuristiques. Cette méthode offre aussi la possibilité de comparer le comportement des programmes par rapport à une spécification sur les réels. Ces méthodes ont été implémentées et expérimentées sur un ensemble de programmes avec du calcul sur les nombres flottants. / The verification of programs with floating-point numbers computation is an important issue in the development of critical software systems. Computations over floating-point numbers are not accurate, and the results may be very different from the expected results over real numbers. The aim of this thesis is to design a constraint solver over floating-point numbers for program verification purposes. We introduce a new method for solving constraints over floating-point numbers. This method is based on an over-approximation of floating-point constraints using constraints over real numbers. This overapproximation is safe, that’s to say it doesn’t loose any solution over the floats. The generated constraints are then solved with a constraint solver over real numbers. We propose a new filtering algorithm using linear programming techniques, which takes advantage of these over-approximations of floating-point constraints. We introduce also new search methods and heuristics to find floating-point solutions of these constraints. Using our implementation, we show on a set of counter-examples the difference of the execution of programs over the floats with the specification over real numbers.

Thesis (D. Tech. (Food Service Management, Dept. of Hospitality))--Vaal University of Technology, 2008 / School feeding programmes are defined as interventions that deliver a meal or snack to children in the school setting, with the intent of improving attendance, enrolment, nutritional status and learning outcomes. The Primary School Nutrition Programme (PSNP) was introduced in South Africa as a Presidential Lead Project in 1994 with the specific aim to improve education by enhancing active learning capacity, school attendance and punctuality. However, not all children qualify to participate in the PSNP and a variety of alternative products, of which little information is known, are used as part of school feeding programmes implemented by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The aim of this study was to investigate such programmes used in the Vaal Region. Five different products used in school feeding programmes in a primary school in Eatonside and two primary schools in Orange Farm were compared in terms of the nutritional content of the products, the impact of these products after a seven month intervention on the nutritional status of the children by analysing their dietary intakes as well as biochemical and anthropometrical measurements, menu cost, compliance of the products by conducting sensory analyses and shelf life studies, and the impact on school attendance. Based on the results of this study, guidelines on the optimal school feeding strategy would be provided to NGO’s and to the Gauteng Department of Education. The five products were a micronutrient dense “vetkoek”, PSNP, two commercial products namely Corn Soya Blend (CSB) and Sejo and, lastly, fruit, which was used as the control. In the Sethlabotja school in Eatonside, the sample consisted of 160 randomly selected boys and girls (40 children participating in the PSNP, and 60 children in each of the vetkoek and fruit groups) and in Sinqobile and Reitumetse schools in Orange Farm the sample included 45 randomly selected children in each of the CSB and Seja groups. Pre-intervention results indicated poor nutritional status. Mean daily energy intake of all the children was below the Dietary Reference Intakes for children between seven and ten years. A mainly carbohydrate-based diet was followed, with inadequate fruit and vegetable intake. The anthropometric indices indicated acute and chronic food shortage. The biochemical results indicated that normal values were present for the majority of the parameters. The post-intervention results indicated that the food consumption patterns did not change substantially during the intervention but the mean energy intake of the children as well as weight, height and body mass index increased with all the interventions. Although few statistically significant differences were observed between the five groups with regard to nutritional status indices, positive changes were observed in each of the groups. The products evaluated in this study proved to be within the range of the provincial school feeding budget. CSB and Sejo were the cheapest programmes because they are subsidised. Compliance to the products was good. No significant differences between commercial and home-prepared food items were found. School attendance was not formally recorded in all the groups. However, a decrease in absenteeism was noted in those groups where it was recorded. It is recommended that further research is conducted on the impact of school feeding on the cognitive performance of school learners in the Vaal Region. / National Research foundation ; Central Research Council

M.A. / Community corrections or correctional supervision, which falls under the Department of Correctional Services and was established in 1991 in South Africa, serves as an alternative sentence and to cater for people who are on parole. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of a life skills programme at Johannesburg Community Corrections rendered to probationers by social workers. Probationers are people who have been given a sentence of correctional supervision by the court. The probationers are compelled to attend one of the established programmes, for example, life skills programmes, as one of the conditions of their sentence. Community corrections B-Order (1991: 34) states that programmes are directly focused on the typical problem area or behaviour of the probationer and shall be aimed at: • preventing further crime perpetration; • improving general sense of responsibility; • acquiring social skills; • improving family relations; and • preventing alcohol and drug abuse. The aim of this study was to evaluate a life skills workshop presented by Johannesburg Community Corrections to probationers in 2000. A representative sample of twenty respondents who attended a life skills programme from April to May 2000 was used for this study. The findings indicated that the programme addresses the above-mentioned problem areas for probationers. From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that most of the probationers, after being exposed to the programme, show great improvement when it comes to the acquisition of social skills, a general sense of family responsibility, attitude towards crime, and family relations. They are positive about their future and they perceive the wrongs they have done as a learning experience. The research design was both quantitative and qualitative in nature and an interview schedule was completed for the purpose of data collection. The results of this study indicated that the programme is effective. The majority of the respondents stated that after being exposed to the programme, their perception, attitude, thinking and life style had changed. The programme has to be modified, as it does not address entrepreneurial and business management skills. Furthermore, it does not include entrepreneurial skills training, which would ultimately help and assist probationers to gain employment or to be self-employed through training in terms of being self-reliant and self-employed. / Prof. J.B.S. Nel