In a dualistic labor market, self-employment is classified as the informal sector because its members are usually unable to find formal jobs. In big cities throughout the world it has been reported that the urban self-employed are often faced with highly restrictive government regulations in the belief that they do not contribute very much to the output. This thesis studies the factors that can explain the successes of these self-employed such as the extent of their capital, entrepreneurial experience, and education. The discriminant analysis is used throughout the study.

Master of Science / Department of Statistics / Christopher Vahl / Among the most used statistical concepts and techniques, seen even in the most cursory of introductory courses, are the confidence interval, binomial distribution, and sample size estimation. This paper investigates a particular case of generating a confidence interval from a binomial experiment in the case where zero successes are expected. Several current methods of generating a binomial proportion confidence interval are examined by means of large-scale simulations and compared in order to determine an ad-hoc method for generating a confidence interval with coverage as close as possible to nominal while minimizing width. This is then used to construct a formula which allows for the estimation of a sample size necessary to obtain a sufficiently narrow confidence interval (with some predetermined probability of success) using the ad-hoc method given a prior estimate of the probability of success for a single trial. With this formula, binomial experiments could potentially be planned more efficiently, allowing researchers to plan only for the amount of precision they deem necessary, rather than trying to work with methods of producing confidence intervals that result in inefficient or, at worst, meaningless bounds.

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This qualitative study was conducted in a suburban intermountain school district. The research purpose was to (a) solicit narratives from principals about the greatest successes and challenges in American education; (b) conduct deep insightful analysis to find emerging themes from the interviews with principals; and (c) to provide important information for policy and law makers. The findings focused on data collected from interviews asking 25 principals to share perspectives and examples from their work in schools and education in general. The principals were asked about educational successes. Those cited regularly highlighted positive cultures, doing tremendous work with minimal funding, and recent academic achievements (not necessarily high test scores). Commonly mentioned challenges were low family commitment to education, low funding, and recruitment of teachers. Additionally, these building level principals thanked their legislature for supporting schools. The findings have powerful implications for policy and law makers. This study also calls on national pollsters to conduct frequent national surveys of principals.

Published Article / With the dawn of the new curriculum in this country, namely, Curriculum 2005 (C2005) in 1997, and the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) in 2002, which are the two major curriculum policy developments in South Africa (Ramsuran & Malcolm, 2006:515), it invited an assortment of reactions from the entire education fraternity. The most obvious and extensive critique of the curriculum was that of the Report of the Ministerial Review Committee, which was established to review it in 2000. The approach adopted in this study is to encompass both processes of initial introduction and the revision stages in its reference to the curriculum. This article however, reveals that despite these implementation challenges, the overwhelming majority (88%) of the teachers have not only begun to embrace it, but are also applying the OBE principles in their lessons.

There have been numerous investigations seeking to quantify the experience of parents raising adolescents of autism, but remarkably few have looked at the total experience qualitatively, as reported by parents. The present study was conducted along with a larger study for adolescents with autism participating in the PEERS® social skills group intervention, which includes simultaneous parent sessions. This study analyzed comments made in the parent group, identifying the issues parents reported spontaneously through a qualitative analysis of 12 unstructured hour-long sessions including parents (n = 16) and graduate student clinicians. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the meaning and experiences of these parents to gain increased understanding about the needs of both parents and adolescents with autism. Themes resulting from the hermeneutic analysis of these videos focused on the adolescents and their "spark," a term coined by the parents denoting the unique strengths of their children, the values they share with the family, the impact of autism on the family, lack of self-awareness, being included and finding "one good friend." There was also a strong theme of the parents seeking support from one another. Finally, the parents spoke often of planning for/hoping for the future and what it may bring for their adolescent with autism. These themes can help describe the challenges/successes of parenting an adolescent with autism. This study provides some direction for further research to inform supports for parents whose children are approaching or are in the midst of adolescence with autism. Some other findings in our study were that parents are very concerned about acceptance of family values by their adolescent. Future studies can explore further what parents' needs are and how clinicians can help them.

<p>Breastfeeding impacts on the health of both the mother and infant and has been noted as being influenced by physiological, physical, socio-economic and environmental factors. The undisputed benefit of exclusive breastfeeding for both the mother and child has led to the global prioritisation of the promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding with the adoption of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) strategy. Baby Friendly Hospital (BFH) status is awarded to a maternity unit when they are found to be complying with set criteria (&ldquo / Ten Steps to successful Breastfeeding&rdquo / ). South Africa has implemented a re-evaluation system for retention of accreditation status, by reassessing accredited facilities every three years. The respective provinces are tasked with monitoring the implementation of BFHI in their public health facilities. Internal monitoring reports, completed by the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health, reflect erosion of key steps between national reassessments. Aim: To describe the experiences, challenges and successes of BFHI implementation in the BFH accredited facilities in the Cape Town geographical health district. Methodology: An explorative qualitative study was conducted. One key informant interview, ten in-depth interviews with champions for BFHI in the maternity facilities and two focus group discussions with frontline staff working at these facilities were used to collect data. The data was analysed using thematic content analysis to identify the main themes related to the successes and challenges experienced with the maintenance of the required practices related to BFHI accreditation. Results: Participants reported that the implementation of the BFHI impacted positively on the health of both mothers and infants. Fewer children were being admitted for common childhood illnesses such as diarrhoea subsequent&nbsp / to BFHI implementation. Mothers were recovering more quickly after delivery and less complications related to delivery, such as postpartum bleeding, were observed after the implementation of BFHI. BFHI implementation had a positive impact on the attitudes of maternity staff to breastfeeding promotion, protection and support. Subsequent to being awarded BFH status, facilities are tasked with maintaining the implemented practices. Challenges to maintaining the practices included lack of implementation of BFHI practices at clinics, lack of support from facility managers and support staff such as counsellors. The internal assessments implemented as supportive monitoring structures are considered by participants to be a demotivating process and concerns were raised about non nursing staff assessing&nbsp / nursing practices. Conclusion: The potential impact of this strategy on infant and maternal health must be realized by the implementers of BFHI, before the strategized aim is achieved. Co-ordination and support by all role players is vital to the success and elimination of challenges experienced with implementation and maintenance of the BFH strategy.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to explore the different forms of global integration and artistic and economic performance factors in order to explain their contribution to the development of film industry as one of the &ldquo / core cultural industries&rdquo / (Hesmondhalgh, 2007, s. 12) accepted as &ldquo / the driver of local economic development at selected locations like cosmopolitan cities&rdquo / (Scott, 2004a, p. 463). In this regard, this thesis attempts to explore globalization process of film industry within different forms of integration and artistic and economic success factors for films and film companies. The main hypothesis of the thesis is that globally integrated film industry is the outcome of artistic and economic successes at film, firm, and organizational level and the function of strong local and global networks, different forms of production strategies and social network structures as well as the high level of social, human, and material capital. Thus, while film, firm and organization specific variables and their effects are tried to be examined for economic performances / human, social, and economic capitals are explored for artistic performances. For the identification of the level of global integration and artistic and economic successes for Istanbul film industry both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed together with social network analysis throughout the thesis. In this way, this thesis describes the types and levels of integration for the case study area and evaluates its relative successes gained in the domestic market with the perspective of global film market. The analyses show that it is a fast growing industry in Istanbul and has managed to succeed in global market at different levels with different strategies. However, the findings demonstrate that production organization of film industry, which is generating economic growth in domestic market / remain incapable against the changing dynamics of film industry in global market. It is still small scale industrial activity and located on the periphery of global film market. For the global integration and sustainable economic growth, it seems very difficult to maintain the existing dynamics of film production in Istanbul.

This research examined a policy developed by a school board and explored the successes and challenges of implementing a Sport Academy in a secondary school in Ontario. The Sport Academy‟s Principal and teaching staff were interviewed about funding, admission criteria, staffing, equity and student engagement. When this program was established, there were concerns that it would appear to be elitist and recruit highly academic students and athletic overachievers. However, the model and programming available to students might actually provide more opportunities, course options and flexible programming to students. The issues raised by the school‟s Principal and the Sport Academy teachers capture some of the political and practical problems that arise during the development of an innovative program.

This research examined a policy developed by a school board and explored the successes and challenges of implementing a Sport Academy in a secondary school in Ontario. The Sport Academy‟s Principal and teaching staff were interviewed about funding, admission criteria, staffing, equity and student engagement. When this program was established, there were concerns that it would appear to be elitist and recruit highly academic students and athletic overachievers. However, the model and programming available to students might actually provide more opportunities, course options and flexible programming to students. The issues raised by the school‟s Principal and the Sport Academy teachers capture some of the political and practical problems that arise during the development of an innovative program.