According to the National Psoriasis Foundation (1976), psoriasis is a little known and poorly understood skin disease afflicting an estimated eight million victims in the United States. About fifteen thousand new cases of psoriasis are diagnosed each year. It affects men and women in equal numbers at any age, most often between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five.

The aim of this study was to fulfil two purposes: to gain deeper insights into what young children think about their teachers, and to examine the effectiveness of different methodologies which are designed to elicit information from school beginners. By employing a variety of qualitative techniques, the study focussed on the development of research methodologies specifically appropriate to this age group. Although the results of the study suggest that the children perceive teachers as performing the more obvious didactic and authoritarian roles, they also indicate an awareness of the managerial aspects of teaching. The data also suggested that the children placed greater emphasis on the teachers role as an entertainer than as a nurturer. An examination of the results in relation to the methodologies used, indicates the possibilities of further developing the drawing and interview technique for use by classroom teachers. The research highlights some interesting implications for teachers. A better understanding of childrens views about classroom practices may influence teachers decisions about how they wish to fulfil their roles and functions.

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Stakeholder driven research has been advocated to link hydroclimatic research with the needs and capabilities of groups affected by climatic variability and related governmental policies. A stakeholder driven research agenda was designed, focusing on hydroclimatic forecasts and their assessment, within the context of an interdisciplinary integrated assessment of the vulnerability of diverse stakeholders to climate variability in the U.S. Southwest. Water management, ranching, and wildland fire management stakeholders were solicited for their input. Their perspectives about hydroclimatic variability and opportunities for using hydroclimatic forecasts differed widely. Many individuals were uninformed or had mistaken impressions about seasonal hydroclimatic forecasts, but understood practical differences between forecasts for "normal" conditions and "nonforecasts" having total uncertainty. Uncertainty about the accuracy of forecasts precludes their more effective use, as does difficulty in distinguishing between "good" and "bad" information. A survey of hydroclimatic forecasting confirmed stakeholder perceptions and identified improvements in hydrologic predictability that could be rapidly incorporated into current operations. Users faced a complex and evolving mix of forecasts available from many sources, but few corresponding interpretive materials or reviews of past performance. Contrasts between the state of meteorologic and hydrologic forecasting were notable, especially in the former's greater operational flexibility and more rapid incorporation of new observations and research products. The research agenda uses predictions as the linkage between stakeholders and scientific advances in observations (e.g., snow conditions) or process understanding. The agenda focuses on two areas: (1) incremental improvement of seasonal water supply forecasts, and (2) improvement of stakeholder perceptions of forecasts through ongoing forecast assessments. A forecast evaluation framework was developed that provides consistency in assessing different forecast products, in ways that that allow individuals to access results at the level they are capable of understanding, while offering opportunity for shifting to more sophisticated criteria. Using the framework, seasonal temperature and precipitation outlooks issued by the National Weather Service were evaluated, considering regions, lead times, seasons, and criteria relevant to different stakeholders. Evaluations that reflect specific user perspectives provide different assessments of forecast performance. Frequently updated, targeted forecast evaluations should be available to potential users.

No description available.

Testing on laboratory-housed primates has long been the standard for research in cognitive psychology and other areas. As an alternative to this, a group of socially housed chacma baboons (Papio hamadrayas ursinus) at the Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education near Phalaborwa in Limpopo Province, South Africa, were the subjects for a set of basic cognitive tests. The purpose of the tests was to explore the importance of analogical reasoning by means of testing perceptual and conceptual skills in baboons. The main aim of this research is to investigate the degree to which captive but socially housed baboons are useful as experimental subjects, and to develop an apparatus and protocol to perform these tests in situ in the baboons' home cages. Five baboons were chosen as the subjects for experimentation. All subjects completed three groups of tasks to a criterion of at least 80% success over four successive experiments. The tasks tested baboons' discrimination ability between two coloured tiles, a reversal of that same discrimination task, and a simple match to- sample task. As a result of time constraints, further tasks testing conceptual ability had to be abandoned. A record was kept of environmental and social factors that may have influenced the motivation of the subjects. The time taken to complete each experiment correlated in many cases with the number of distractions experienced by the subjects. There appeared to be no significant correlation between the score attained by a subject and the number of distractions experienced by that subject. The greater number of distractions experienced by the subjects was a result of the more engaged social world in which these baboons exist. Consequently, their motivation to perform repetitive cognitive tests was decreased, and needed to be countered in novel ways. An apparatus and a protocol for testing under these conditions were developed. Testing baboons' cognitive skills in these circumstances is both possible and desirable for ethical reasons, though the process takes longer than under laboratory conditions. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2004

abstract: Driven by concern over environmental, economic and social problems, small, place based communities are engaging in processes of transition to become more sustainable. These communities may be viewed as innovative front runners of a transition to a more sustainable society in general, each one, an experiment in social transformation. These experiments present learning opportunities to build robust theories of community transition and to create specific, actionable knowledge to improve, replicate, and accelerate transitions in real communities. Yet to date, there is very little empirical research into the community transition phenomenon. This thesis empirically develops an analytical framework and method for the purpose of researching community transition processes, the ultimate goal of which is to arrive at a practice of evidence based transitions. A multiple case study approach was used to investigate three community transitions while simultaneously developing the framework and method in an iterative fashion. The case studies selected were Ashton Hayes, a small English village, BedZED, an urban housing complex in London, and Forres, a small Scottish town. Each community was visited and data collected by interview and document analysis. The research design brings together elements of process tracing, transformative planning and governance, sustainability assessment, transition path analysis and transition management within a multiple case study envelope. While some preliminary insights are gained into community transitions based on the three cases the main contribution of this thesis is in the creation of the research framework and method. The general framework and method developed has potential for standardizing and synthesizing research of community transition processes leading to both theoretical and practical knowledge that allows sustainability transition to be approached with confidence and not just hope. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Sustainability 2011

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-13T14:51:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-02-20Bitstream added on 2014-08-13T17:59:35Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000776589.pdf: 2857888 bytes, checksum: d897ae9d66a070240898f1eb97648046 (MD5) / Introdução: O melanoma cutâneo é o mais agressivo dos cânceres de pele. Sua incidência vem aumentando em todo o mundo e vários fatores têm sido atribuídos a este aumento. Estudos sobre o melanoma cutâneo com base em dados de registros populacionais são escassos no Brasil. Objetivos: Descrever os coeficientes de incidência (1996-2011) por melanoma cutâneo na cidade de Jaú, segundo: sexo, ano de diagnóstico, faixa etária, localização anatômica, estadio e tipo histológico. Descrever os coeficientes de mortalidade (1996-2011) por melanoma cutâneo na cidade de Jaú, segundo: sexo, ano do óbito e faixa etária. Analisar a tendência dos coeficientes de incidência (1996-2011), segundo: ano de diagnóstico, sexo e estadio. Analisar a tendência dos coeficientes de mortalidade (1996-2011) por melanoma cutâneo na cidade de Jaú, segundo: ano do óbito e sexo. Métodos: Foram analisados 162 casos novos de melanoma cutâneo diagnosticados no período de 1996 a 2011 fornecidos pelo Registro de Câncer de Base Populacional de Jahu e 39 óbitos por melanoma cutâneo ocorridos entre 1996 e 2011 fornecidos pelo Sistema de Informações sobre Mortalidade do Ministério da Saúde (SIM-MS). Foram calculados os coeficientes bruto e padronizado de incidência e de mortalidade, foi analisada a tendência destes coeficientes através do modelo de regressão. Resultados: O coeficiente médio de incidência (1996-2011) para o sexo feminino foi de 5,1 por 100.000 e para o sexo masculino foi de 4,8 por 100.000. Ambos não apresentaram tendência de crescimento ou queda no período (estabilidade). O coeficiente médio de mortalidade (1996-2011) para o sexo feminino foi de 1,4 por 100.000 e para o sexo masculino foi de 2,2 por 100.000, ambos também não apresentaram tendência de crescimento ou queda. Os coeficientes de incidência para os casos diagnosticados na fase inicial da doença, estadio 0, apresentaram tendencia de crescimento (r2=0,73; ... / Introduction: The cutaneous melanoma is the most aggressive of the skin cancers. Its incidence is increasing all over the world and many factors are being assigned to this increase. Studies on cutaneous melanoma based on population-based registries are scarce in Brazil. Objectives: Describe the incidence rates (1996-2011) by cutaneous melanoma in the city of Jaú, according: sex, year of the diagnosis, age, anatomic location, stage and histological type. Describe the mortality coefficients (1996-2011) by cutaneous melanoma in the city of Jaú, according: sex, year of death and age. Analyze the tendency of the incidence coefficients (1996-2011), according: year of diagnosis, sex and stage. Analyze the tendency of the mortality coefficients (1996-2011) by cutaneous melanoma in the city of Jaú, according: year of death and sex. Methods: 162 new cases of cutaneous melanoma diagnosed in the period from 1996 to 2011 were analyzed and they were provided by the Population-Based Cancer Registry of Jaú and 39 deaths by cutaneous melanoma occurred between 1996 and 2011 provided by the Mortality Information System of the Ministry of Health (SIM-MS). The crude and the standardized coefficients of incidence and mortality were calculated, the tendency of those coefficients were analyzed through the regression model. Results: The average incidence coefficient (1996-2011) for the feminine sex was 5.1 from 100,000 and for the masculine sex was 4.8 from 100,000. Both didn’t present tendency of increasing or decreasing in the period (stability). The average mortality coefficient (1996-2011) for the feminine sex was 1.4 from 100,000 and for the masculine sex was 2.2 from 100,000, both also didn’t present tendency of increasing or decreasing. The incidence coefficients for the cases diagnosed in the initial phase of the disease, stage 0, presented growing tendency (r2=0.73; p=0.03) and the cases of stage I and II, presented decreasing tendency (r2=0.98; ...