Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton University, 1978. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 532-545).

Mestre -- Escola Nacional de Saude Publica, Rio de Janeiro, 1999.

Software projects are not developed in isolation. Open source software projects encourage a networked collaboration and interdependence across projects and developers. Recent research has shifted to studying software ecosystems, communities of projects that depend on each other and are developed together. However, identifying technical dependencies at the ecosystem level can be challenging. In this dissertation, we propose a new method, known as reference coupling, for detecting technical dependencies between projects. The method establishes dependencies through user-specified cross-references between projects. We use our method to identify ecosystems in GitHub hosted projects, and we identify several characteristics of the identified ecosystems. Our findings show that most ecosystems are centered around one project and are interconnected with other ecosystems. The predominant type of ecosystems are those that develop tools to support software development. We also found that the project owners’ social behavior aligns well with the technical dependencies within the ecosystem, but project contributors’ social behavior does not align with these dependencies. We conclude with a discussion on future research that is enabled by our reference coupling method. / Graduate / harrison.franc@gmail.com

Background Literature supports a relationship between low income status and poor diabetes control. However this relationship has not been assessed in Botswana. Aim To determine the relationship between socio-economic status and diabetes control in patients presenting to PMH. Objectives To measure the degree of glycaemic control; to determine the relationship between glycaemic control and monthly income as well as between glycaemic control and lifestyle modification factors;to describe the relationship between glycaemic control and core social welfare indicators. Methods A cross-sectional study, conducted over a 3 months in Gaborone, The questionnaire assessed self-care activities, monthly household earnings and core social welfare indicators among diabetes patients attending PMH. A total of 240 patients were randomly selected to complete the questionnaire. Routine HbA1c values were studied alongside questionnaire responses. Results A total of 58 (24%) participants with HbA1c between 4.0%-7.0% were well controlled, 96 (40%) of participants were poorly controlled (7.1%-9.0%) and 86 (36%) in the very poorly controlled category with HbA1c >9.0%. Of the well-controlled category, 59% lived on a monthly income between P0- P5000(the lowest income bracket). Only 3% participants in this category earned above P20000 monthly (the highest income bracket). Of the 40% poorly controlled participants, 69% fell in the lowest income bracket. No participants in this poorly controlled category earned above P20000 monthly. There were 40% participants in the very poorly controlled category. Of these, 63% earned between P0 - P5000. Only 2 participants with HbA1c values of 9.1 earned above P20000. Conclusion In this study high HbA1c percentages were associated with low monthly income levels and low scores in lifestyle modification factors. Participants with poor access to core welfare indicators also had poor glycaemic control. This study suggests that poor socio-economic status is directly related to poor glycaemic control in patients attending PMH diabetes clinic.

Orientador: Miguel Cezar Sanchez / Banca: Jurandyr Luciano Sanches Ross / Banca: Maria Isabel Castreghini de Freitas / Banca: Iandara Alves Mendes / Banca: Cenira Maria Lupinacci da Cunha / Resumo: Pautada por uma abordagem sistêmica, esta pesquisa tem, como objetivo, a execução e análise de duas propostas metodológicas de análise ambiental para se averiguar a contribuição de cada uma na elaboração de um zoneamento ambiental para o município de Corumbataí/SP. Para tanto serão consideradas as abordagens metodológicas propostas por ROSS (1990), para quem a análise geossistêmica da paisagem é alicerçada na análise empírica da fragilidade dos ambientes naturais face à intervenção antrópica, com definição das Unidades Taxonômicas da Paisagem. A outra metodologia a ser levada em conta é a proposta por MATEO RODRIGUEZ (1994), que considera a interação dos componentes antrópicos e naturais ao estabelecer as Unidades Geoambientais da Paisagem. Ambas as metodologias constituem-se instrumento importante para a organização ou reorganização do espaço em face de uma política de planejamento ambiental. O Município de Corumbataí, inserido na "Área de Proteção Ambiental da Bacia do Rio Corumbataí", tem a economia vinculada à regional, sobretudo no desenvolvimento das atividades rurais e de mineração. O desenvolvimento, especialmente da área rural do município, faz-se sem perspectivas imediatas de ordenamento territorial, resultando na ocupação desordenada de áreas naturalmente suscetíveis à ocorrência de processos naturais que, aliados a ações antrópicas, podem determinar quadros catastróficos. A ausência de uma documentação cartográfica que apresente a espacialização das áreas de maior fragilidade da paisagem, sujeitas a ocorrência de fenômenos naturais, dificulta em muito a tomada de decisão quanto ao uso a ser atribuído a um determinado espaço de forma a minimizar os impactos oriundos da intervenção antrópica, que se refletem no desenvolvimento das atividades sócio-econômicas da região...(Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Anchored on the systemic approach, this research aims at the development and assessment of two distinct methodological proposals of environmental analysis, as they are applied to the elaboration of an environmental zoning plan for the municipality of Corumbataí, State of São Paulo, Brazil. Hence, in order to accomplish this aim, the methodological approaches put forward by ROSS (1990) were discussed. According to this author, the geosystemic analysis of the landscape is founded on the empirical analysis of natural environment susceptibility to human induced changes, which generates Landscape Taxonomic Units. Another methodological approach to this issue was proposed by MATEO RODRIGUEZ (1994). In this case, the interaction between human induced and natural components is taken in account in order to stablish Landscape Geoenvironmental Units. Both methodologies are important tools for understanding of spatial (re) organization as a consequence of a certain environmental planning policy. The Municiplaity of Corumbataí lies within the "Corumbataí River Catchment Environmental Protection Area". Its economy is closely linked to the region's, mainly through the development of rural and mining activities. The development of the Municipality, specially at its rural areas, is not ruled by any immediate spatial ordering plan, which results in the disorganized occupation of environmentaly fragile areas, prone to the attack of natural hazards, aggravated by human induced processes, which may lead to catastrophic scenarios. The absence of an accurate cartographic documentation, which emphasizes the spatial occurrence of landscape sensitive areas, inhibits the decision making processes and the regulation of landuse in the Municipality, which could help minimizing the effects of human induced hazards upon the region's socio-economical activities...(Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo a identificação das relações entre fatores sócio-culturais, decisões de investimento de capital e rentabilidade na pequena empresa industrial paranaense. A hipótese substantiva deste estu do á a de que esses fatores afetam as decisões de investimen to de capital e a rentabilidade. O argumento básico teve como suporte a observação de que o pequeno empresário, ao tomar decisões, o faz abstraindo- se dos aspectos racionais do processo decisório, uma vez que este não tem acesso aos diversos mecanismos que permite reduzir ou mesmo anular o nivel intuitivo que tem sido uma caracteritica desse processo. Como consequência, o pequeno empresário passa a ser influenciado por um conjunto de fatores sócio-culturais identificados por elementos como: o sistema educacional, as diferenças etárias, o nivel sócioeconômico, a comunicação coletiva, a orientação para o fatalismo, a orientação para o status social, a importância atri buída à familia e a satisfação em relação ao trabalho. Já que a rentabilidade da pequena indústria á decorrente dos investimentos efetuados, o estudo assumiu que esta também á influenciada, via decisão de investimento, pelos referidos fatores sócio-culturais. A consistencia do trabalho foi subsidiada pela anã lise desenvolvida e que se caracterizou por dois momentos distintos: primeiramente, elaborou--se um referencial com o objetivo de identificar o suporte teórico que sustentaria as hipóteses de tabalho; a segunda fase consistiu no teste das hipóteses, através de instrumentos quantitativos. Essa analise foi desenvolvida sobre =mestra ams tituída por 201 pequenas empresas localizadas no Estado do Paraná, cujos dirigentes representavam elementos oriundos dos seis grupos étnicos escolhidos para o trabalho, ou seja, bra sileiros, alemães, italianos, japoneses, poloneses e sírio-libaneses. Os resultados geraram conclusões que permitem acei tar serem os dirigentes das pequenas indústrias influenciados diferentemente nas suas decisões de investimento de capital, com reflexos na rentabilidade da empresa, pelos fatores sócio-culturais arrolados. Por outro lado, os resultados demonstraram que existem divergências quanto ao nível de influencia exercida sobre as variáveis dependentes dentro dos grupos étnicos, isto é, algumas variáveis sócio-culturaistõm maior influência sobre as variáveis dependentes em um determinado grupo e menor em outro. Da mesma forma, o estudo pro põe que as causas desta diferenciação estão, provavelmente, no sistema de valores que determinam a cultura dos referidos grupos. / This studyaims at identifyng the relationships among socio-cultural aspects, capital investment decisions and lucrativeness ins Paraná's small industrial enterprises. It is our substantive hypothesis that these socio-cultural factors do affect both capital investment decicions and profita bility. Our basic argument is based upon the observed fact that the small entrepreneur, whem acting as a decision maker, does it without taking into account the rational aspects of the decision-making process. Since he does not have access to the operational tools which make it possible to either reduce or eliminate the intuitiveness which characterizes the process. As a consequence of this, the small entrepreneur is subjected to the influences of social-cultural aspects such as education, age, socio-economic levei, collective communication, orientation towards fatalism, orientation towards social status, family importance, and job satisfaction. Having in sight that lucrativeness in the small industries is dependent upon the investments leveis, this study assumed that the former is also affected, via investment decisions, by the above mentioned socio-cultural aspects. The study has been developed intwo phases: in the first one a bibliographical research was done in order to estabilish a theoretical framework to support the working hypothesis; the second one consisted in testing the established hypotheses through statistical procedures. The statistical analysis was performed on data collected from a sample of 201 small industries in the Paraná State, and whose directors carne from the ethnic groups consid ered: Brazilians, Germans, Italians, Japoneese, Polishes and Syrian-Lebaneeses. The analysis have shown that it is possible to accept the fact that the small entrepreneurs decisions regard ing capital investment, which in turn affect the enterprise's profitability, are differentially affected by the mentioned socio-cultural aspects. On the other hand, the results also show that there are divergencies as to the influence leveis of the factors upon the dependent variates within the ethnic goui3s, i.e., some so cio-cultural factors have a greater influence upon the depend ent variates in a certaim group and smaller one in another. By the same token, the study supposes that causes for this differences are, probably, in the value system determining each ethnic group culture.

This study explores the complexity of teachers’ attitudes towards promoting their pupils’ mental health in Kuwait middle schools, teachers’ perceptions of the contextual factors that shaped those attitudes, the barriers they identify that might hinder the implementation of the promotion process, and changes required to put such a promotion process into practice. A mixed-methodological research approach is adopted within a complementary research design, consisting of two stages. A total of 497 Kuwaiti middle school teachers completed a systematic survey and twelve teachers were subsequently chosen purposely to take part in semi-structured interviews. The study’s findings suggest that Kuwaiti middle school teachers tend to hold moderately favourable attitudes towards promoting pupils’ mental health. However, a variety of personal, interpersonal, socio-cultural, and structural-organizational barriers were perceived by teachers, which could undermine positive attitudes and impact on the implementation of promoting pupils’ mental health. The study also showed teachers’ attitudes and perceptions as markedly embedded within their socio-cultural and religious context.

Energy consumption in the home depends on appliance ownership and use, space heating systems, control set-points and hot water use. It represents a significant proportion of national demand in the UK. The factors that drive the level of consumption are a complex and interrelated mix of the numbers of people in the home, the building and system characteristics as well as the preferences for the internal environment and service choices of occupants. Reducing the energy demand in the domestic sector is critical to achieving the national 2050 carbon targets, as upward of 60% reduction in demand is assumed by many energy system scenarios and technology pathways. The uptake of reduction measures has been demonstrated to be quite ad hoc and intervention studies have demonstrated considerable variation in the results. Additionally, a limitation of many studies is that they only consider one intervention, whereas a more holistic approach to the assessment of the potential of reduction measures in specific homes may yield a better understanding of the likely impact of measures on the whole house consumption and indeed would shed light on the appropriateness of the assumptions that underpin the decisions that need to be made regarding the future energy supply system and demand strategies. This work presents a systematic approach to modelling potential reductions for a set of seven family homes, feeding back this information to householders and then evaluating the likely reduction potential based on their responses. Carried out through a combination of monitoring and semi-structured interviews, the approach develops a methodology to model energy reduction in specific homes using monitoring data and steady-state heat balance principles to determine ventilation heat loss, improving the assumptions within the energy model regarding those variables affected by human behaviour. The findings suggest that the anticipated reductions in end use energy demand in the domestic sector are possible, but that there is no `one size fits all' solution. A combination of retrofitting and lifestyle change is needed in most homes and smart home technology may potentially be useful in assisting the home owner to achieve reductions where they are attempting to strike a balance between energy efficiency, service and comfort.

The aim of this Master thesis titled ''The role of Small and Medium Business Enterprises to the Socio-Economic Development of Ghana'' was to analyze the opportunities of Small and Medium Business Enterprises (SMEs) operating in the informal sector of Ghana and its contribution to the economic growth and development through registration and taxation. To tackle the topic, a quantitative approach was adopted. Questionnaires were circulated to SMEs in the Accra metropolis and based on the responses received; analysis of the data was done to know the various ways in which the informal sector can be induced to register and also taxed. Also the amount of revenue which can be generated from registering and taxing SMEs in the informal sector was calculated to know how much the government is losing as well as how it would contribute to socio-economic development of the region and the country at large. The study concludes with some recommendations on the development of the informal sector and as such effective ways to register and tax the informal sector for the socio-economic development.