Independent Homicide Inquiries (IHIs) investigate homicides committed by persons in receipt of mental health services. They explore the potential causes of these events in order to learn lessons and improve the future provision of mental health services. IHIs decipher complex mental health care histories that, on further inspection, appear resistant to linear causal theories about what actually happened. IHIs are thus constantly open to indeterminacy in their findings regarding what caused the homicide, whether it was predictable and whether it could have been prevented. This is important because IHIs use these findings as a platform for changing the way mental health services are provided. The present thesis implements a theoretical framework, based on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, which explains why this problem occurs. Luhmann argued that reality is constructed by distinctly meaningful social systems of communication based around specific social codes. He furthermore posits that decisions are open to continual objection, disagreement and regret. Not only can decisions be decided otherwise by virtue of being decisions, but that social systems will observe decisions in different ways. Decisions can always be observed to be objectionable, incorrect and regrettable after they have been taken. Using this framework, this thesis asks how IHIs retrospectively understand the provision of mental health services in the cases that appear before them. It argues that IHIs construct their investigation and findings using specific social communications that give their observations specific meaning. In light of an expanding, interconnected decision making edifice that comprises mental health services however, the link between identifiable decisions and acts of homicide is obfuscated by ‘systems and processes’. This, in turn, obfuscates individual agency. The thesis consequently calls for a revision of what it means to hold mental health professionals to account in the aftermath of homicide.

This thesis is a record of two research strands that have been intertwined during the development over a four year period of a classroom curriculum for an elective Geology 12 course in a new school. It discusses traditional belief systems identified as common to the practice of senior science and how one teacher wanted to challenge those beliefs to produce a working curriculum that would focus on long term learning within the framework of an externally prescribed curriculum and a provincially mandated external final exam that counted for 40% of the students mark. The teacher, working on her own in a portable for the first two years was in the unenviable position of being supplied with textbooks with a foreign focus and with supplies that as the title suggests were of little use over the long term. By Christmas of the first year a number of major problems had been identified, these problems falling into two major categories - developing strategies for long term learning that, within the operational constraints of grade 12, would enable the students to take far more responsibility for their own learning, and second, developing a science research programme for acquiring the resources, principally through field work, that were identified as being necessary for the programme. The major concerns within these two problem areas were identified and a four year timeline was developed for implementation. On the pedagogical side, after examining some of the literature on learning, particularly that around the area of cooperative learning that has had a substantial focus in recent years in a number of local school districts, reflecting on what worked for me in terms of my practice over 27 years of science teaching, I chose to focus on the Project for Enhancing Effective Learning (PEEL), out of Monash University, Australia as my working framework for learning. The process of developing this classroom curriculum was framed as a qualitative individual action research project over time as, within my professional life, there were no other teachers involved with the geology programme within the school, and at the same time being in a portable isolated me from my peers-l had no choice but to be self contained and self reliant. The pedagogical side of the process saw the evolvement of a programme that differed significantly in many ways from traditional senior science teaching. This is not to say that many teachers are not already reflecting on and trying to improve practice but for most of them it is through quiet reflection, discourse and evolution much as it had been for me until this time. For me this was the first time in my career that I was able to develop a programme from the very beginning. The thesis details the development of a multi-level learning strategy with an underlying theme being the development of more metacognitive students. The programme entails the identification of prior learning, reflective and collaborative practice, multiple processings of content and skills, peer assessment, and semi-formal reflective assessment. For many students, particularly during my first two years, most of these strategies were completely foreign to their cultural expectations of the teacher's role as dispenser of information to be regurgitated back through formal assessment. During the last two years these challenges to student thinking have been far less dramatic as I am now a known quantity in the school and the students taking my course expect to be working at becoming more independent long term learners. The programme is also built on the premise that for geology, relevant hands-on activities are an integral part of the learning process, and this other research strand is also explored and described. This is the story of the two research strands by which a semi-independent multi-level learning environment has been developed and implemented with a high degree of hands-on activities. Although a formal assessment of the programme is almost impossible to do within the constraints of my working environment, the personal feedback that I receive from the students, parents and colleagues indicates that it has been successful. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness1 of the work done by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in the Syrian Arab Republic. This study strives to evaluate how well the commission succeeded in pursuing its mandate as stated, in addition to, evaluating how well the work of the commission in Syria was perceived to have been fulfilled by the people affected and involved. This study applies a qualitative approach. In order to obtain more in depth information of the commission‟s work the study combines interviews with a number of stakeholders, a literature study, in addition to, the author‟s own acquired experience from the United Nations. This study reveals that the main reason for the unwillingness of Syria to cooperate with the commission was due to the fact that the people, as well as, the government of Syria perceive the United Nations to be biased and to have lost the humanitarian aspect. The Col Syria overall fulfilled their mandate and it was performed as efficiently as could be given the constraints it faced. Yet, the work of the UN and the UN mandated missions are not perceived to be effective or satisfactory. The UN branches are perceived to be too politically affected and no longer prioritize the people of a country. Keywords: Syria, United Nations, International Independent Commission of Inquiry, Evaluation / The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness1 of the work done by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in the Syrian Arab Republic. This study strives to evaluate how well the commission succeeded in pursuing its mandate as stated, in addition to, evaluating how well the work of the commission in Syria was perceived to have been fulfilled by the people affected and involved. This study applies a qualitative approach. In order to obtain more in depth information of the commission‟s work the study combines interviews with a number of stakeholders, a literature study, in addition to, the author‟s own acquired experience from the United Nations. This study reveals that the main reason for the unwillingness of Syria to cooperate with the commission was due to the fact that the people, as well as, the government of Syria perceive the United Nations to be biased and to have lost the humanitarian aspect. The Col Syria overall fulfilled their mandate and it was performed as efficiently as could be given the constraints it faced. Yet, the work of the UN and the UN mandated missions are not perceived to be effective or satisfactory. The UN branches are perceived to be too politically affected and no longer prioritize the people of a country. Keywords: Syria, United Nations, International Independent Commission of Inquiry, Evaluation / The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness1 of the work done by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in the Syrian Arab Republic. This study strives to evaluate how well the commission succeeded in pursuing its mandate as stated, in addition to, evaluating how well the work of the commission in Syria was perceived to have been fulfilled by the people affected and involved. This study applies a qualitative approach. In order to obtain more in depth information of the commission‟s work the study combines interviews with a number of stakeholders, a literature study, in addition to, the author‟s own acquired experience from the United Nations. This study reveals that the main reason for the unwillingness of Syria to cooperate with the commission was due to the fact that the people, as well as, the government of Syria perceive the United Nations to be biased and to have lost the humanitarian aspect. The Col Syria overall fulfilled their mandate and it was performed as efficiently as could be given the constraints it faced. Yet, the work of the UN and the UN mandated missions are not perceived to be effective or satisfactory. The UN branches are perceived to be too politically affected and no longer prioritize the people of a country. Keywords: Syria, United Nations, International Independent Commission of Inquiry, Evaluation / The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness1 of the work done by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in the Syrian Arab Republic. This study strives to evaluate how well the commission succeeded in pursuing its mandate as stated, in addition to, evaluating how well the work of the commission in Syria was perceived to have been fulfilled by the people affected and involved. This study applies a qualitative approach. In order to obtain more in depth information of the commission‟s work the study combines interviews with a number of stakeholders, a literature study, in addition to, the author‟s own acquired experience from the United Nations. This study reveals that the main reason for the unwillingness of Syria to cooperate with the commission was due to the fact that the people, as well as, the government of Syria perceive the United Nations to be biased and to have lost the humanitarian aspect. The Col Syria overall fulfilled their mandate and it was performed as efficiently as could be given the constraints it faced. Yet, the work of the UN and the UN mandated missions are not perceived to be effective or satisfactory. The UN branches are perceived to be too politically affected and no longer prioritize the people of a country. Keywords: Syria, United Nations, International Independent Commission of Inquiry, Evaluation

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Testing an integrated circuit once it has been manufactured is required in order to identify faulty and fault-free circuits. As the complexity of integrated circuits increases so does the difficulty of creating efficient and high quality tests that can detect a variety of defect types that can occur throughout the manufacturing process. Three issues facing manufacturing test are the power consumed during testing, addressing different types of fault, and test data volume. In regards to the power consumed during testing, abnormal switching activity, far above that seen by functional operation, may occur due to the testing technique of scan insertion. While scan insertion greatly simplifies test generation for sequential circuits, it may lead to excessive switching activity due to the loading and unloading of scan data and when the scan cells are updated using functional clocks. This can potentially damage the circuit due to excessive heat or inadvertently fail a good circuit due to current supply demands beyond design specifications. Stuck-at tests detect when lines are shorted to either the power supply or ground. Open faults are broken connections within the circuit. Some open faults may not be detected by tests generated for stuck-at faults. Therefore tests may need to be generated in order to detect these open faults. The voltage on the open node is determined by circuit parameters. Due to the feature size of the circuit it may not be possible to determine these circuit parameters, making it very difficult or impossible to generate tests for open faults. Automated test equipment is used to apply test stimuli and observing the output response. The output response is compared to the known fault-free response in order to determine if it is faulty or fault-free. Thus, automated test equipment must store the test stimuli and the fault-free responses in memory. With increased integrated circuit complexity, the number of inputs, outputs, and faults increase, increasing the overall data required for testing. Automated test equipment is very expensive, proportional to the memory required to store the test stimuli and fault-free output response. Simply replacing automated test equipment is not cost effective. These issues in the manufacturing test of integrated circuits are addressed in this dissertation. First, a method to reduce power consumption in circuits which incorporate data volume reduction techniques is proposed. Second, a test generation technique for open faults which does not require knowledge of circuit parameters is proposed. Third, a technique to further reduce output data volume in circuits which currently incorporate output response compaction techniques is proposed. Experimental results for the three techniques show their effectiveness.

Micro-seismology is attracting more and more attention in the exploration seismology community. The main goal in micro-seismic imaging is to find the source location and the ignition time in order to track the fracture expansion, which will help engineers monitor the reservoirs. Conventional imaging methods work fine in this field but there are many limitations such as manual picking, incorrect migration velocity and low signal to noise ratio (S/N). In traditional surface survey imaging, full waveform inversion (FWI) is widely used. The FWI method updates the velocity model by minimizing the misfit between the observed data and the predicted data. Using FWI to locate and image microseismic events allows for an automatic process (free of picking) that utilizes the full wavefield. Use the FWI technique, and overcomes the difficulties of manual pickings and incorrect velocity model for migration. However, the technique of waveform inversion of micro-seismic events faces its own problems. There is significant nonlinearity due to the unknown source location (space) and function (time). We have developed a source independent FWI of micro-seismic events to simultaneously invert for the source image, source function and velocity model. It is based on convolving reference traces with the observed and modeled data to mitigate the effect of an unknown source ignition time. The adjoint-state method is used to derive the gradient for the source image, source function and velocity updates. To examine the accuracy of the inverted source image and velocity model the extended image for source wavelet in z-axis is extracted. Also the angle gather is calculated to check the applicability of the migration velocity. By inverting for the source image, source wavelet and the velocity model simultaneously, the proposed method produces good estimates of the source location, ignition time and the background velocity in the synthetic experiments with both parts of the Marmousi and the SEG Overthrust model. On the other hand, a new imaging condition of natural Green’s function has been implemented to mitigate the effect of the unknown velocity model. It is based on putting receivers in a horizontal well close to the micro-seismic events so that only a small part of the velocity model is required for the imaging. In order to focus the multi scattering energy to the source location, as well as to suppress the influence of the noise in the data, we introduced a new method to compensate the energy in the receiver wavefield. It is based on reflection waveform inversion (RWI) theory. We simply migrate for the scatters (reflectors) in the medium, and set the image as a secondary source to compensate for the multi scattering energy in the receiver wavefield. By applying the same imaging condition, the energy of those scattering events can be traced to the source location. Thus the source point has higher energy in the source image. A simple two-layer medium test demonstrates the features.

Teacher absenteeism is a huge concern both internationally and nationally. If it is not well-managed the resulting consequences can be disastrous for schools and most important, the students. While there have been many studies regarding the reasons teachers get absent and the impact this has on student achievement, there is very little information available on the actual management practises of teacher absenteeism, especially in independent, primary schools. Therefore my study will focus on how teacher absenteeism is managed in independent, primary schools in Midrand, Gauteng Province. The purpose of this study is to investigate and procure a basis for understanding how teacher absenteeism is managed in independent, primary schools in South Africa, and in doing so, deliver a perspective into the effective and gainful management thereof. My study made use of a qualitative, case study approach. Numerous data collection techniques like interviews, document analysis and observations were utilised to produce the following results: School managers play a pivotal role in managing teacher absenteeism. The climate and culture they create within the school environment is fundamental to the manner in which teacher absenteeism is managed. If school managers adopt a strong stance against offending teachers and the immediate penalties are opposed, as well as, rewarding the teachers who work in a committed manner and a key component of this is for teachers to attend school regularly and on time, then that specific school will experience low levels of teacher absenteeism. Independent schools in particular exert enormous pressure on their teachers to perform at their best due to parents paying a high amount in school fees and due to the fact that independent schools have direct control over their teachers’ salaries, the teachers feel compelled to fall in line with the schools’ expectations. As a result of my study, these strategies now become available to the schools that experience high rates of teacher absenteeism. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

The element of fairness in a performance appraisal system is essential for an organisation. If the system of an organisation is not fair, it may result in an employee being dissatisfied with the appraisal system and this may lead to extremes such as employee attrition. The purpose of the study was to examine educators’ perspectives of fair performance appraisal practices in selected independent schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The research approach adopted for the study was qualitative while the research design used was case study. Purposive sampling technique was used in the selection of the sample for this study. The findings of the study revealed that teachers think performance appraisal was conducted properly and the process helps to improve individual teaching output. The HODs believed performance appraisal was conducted in a positive and encouraging manner. The school principals also viewed the appraisal process positively, indicating that the competence of teachers and the quality of teaching and learning taking place in the school are assessed by doing performance appraisals. The different categories of the participants namely, teachers, HODs and principals believed that the process of performance appraisal was quite fair and recommended that there should be other tools for assessing the teachers’ ability. Furthermore, the teachers did not see the appraisal system as unfair, but proposed other effective ways of conducting the appraisal system. According to the HODs, the process is time-consuming and the principals were satisfied with the appraisal process but cautioned that the process would become unfair if bonuses are given to the teachers. In addition, the teachers submitted that the exercise can be unfair if assessment is based on incorrect or inaccurate information. A fair appraisal process is when all parties are open and communicate with one another, constructive and honest feedback is given as well as the use of agreed upon procedures consistently. In conclusion, to improve the effectiveness of performance appraisal practices, fair performance appraisal practices should be given utmost priority. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

The Mayors and Independents Movement (STAN) is in many aspects of the Czech party system a specific political entity to which has been paid insufficient attention in the academic sphere so far. Therefore, this diploma thesis comprehensively presents the origin and development of the Mayors and Independents movement in a descriptive form of a case study. Partial research questions aim to assess the degree of institutionalization of the STAN movement from the point of view of the theories of the authors Angel Panebianc or Vicky Randall and Lars Svåsand as well as the placement among the classical typologies of political parties from the point of view of internal party organization. The first part is analytical research focused on internal party processes, organizational settings, mutual relations between stakeholders, membership status and analysis of the structure of the STAN movement. The second part is devoted to the ideological and programmatic definition of the STAN movement, within which, in addition to program documents and attitudes of leading actors, the self-profile of the membership base from the data of the questionnaire survey is examined. Last but not least, the work also deals with relations with other political entities in terms of coalition potential for the formation of...

The research shows a novel approach for the Magnetic Anomaly Differentiation and Localization Algorithm, which simultaneously localizes multiple magnetic anomalies with weak total field signatures (tens of nT). In particular, it focuses on the case where there are two homogeneous targets with known magnetic moments. This was done by analyzing the magnetic signals and adapting Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Simulated Annealing (SA) to solve the problem statement. The results show the groundwork for using a combination of fastICA and SA to give localization errors of 3 meters or less per target in simulation and achieved a 58% success rate. Experimental results experienced additional errors due to the effects of magnetic background, unknown magnetic moments, and navigation error. While one target was localized within 3 meters, only the latest experimental run showed the second target approaching the localization specification. This highlighted the need for higher signal-to-noise ratio and equipment with better navigational accuracy. The data analysis was used to provide recommendations on the needed equipment to minimize observed errors and improve algorithm success. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection