Long-haul truck drivers are absent from their families for prolonged periods of time. This paper examines the methods trucking families use to remain connected given such absences. Interviews with ten women married to long-haul truck drivers underwent qualitative analysis. Initially, personal profiles were developed to illustrate life experiences of the women. While the trucking industry set the context, the families decided how to cope with the lifestyle. Patterns of coping strategies developed by the families were described by the women. Coping strategies did not result from the efforts of one individual. All family members contributed to it in a dynamic process. One instrumental source of support was the driver's trucking company. Support systems instrumental in helping families utilize coping mechanisms were identified. Women used ambivalent thought to resolve negative emotions. In addition, an environmental analysis that compared the homes of the women and the homes of non-truckers was conducted to determine whether trucking women's homes reflected their lifestyle and attitudes toward their husband's absence. The trucking family engages in an atypical lifestyle, yet their issues are similar to those experienced by families whose husbands and fathers are home every night. Trucking families continually seek to find methods that allow them to think of themselves as normative. / Graduation date: 1999

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce used the form or structure of his language to connote a meaning which supported the content of the text. The elements of form he used most often were sentence and paragraph structure, punctuation, rhythm, and classical rhetorical schemes. By manipulating these, he gained three benefits: he supplied an emotional appeal to the content, he represented his epistemological beliefs in his language, and he gave elegance to his prose. Background research reveals the influences that led to Joyce using form to support content. They include his Jesuit education, his own predisposition to the connotative aspects of language, and his literary work previous to Portrait. The examination of the text of Portrait exhibits the particular ways Joyce used the elements of form to fit content. Several of the highly emotional episodes of the story, the most likely to contain form-fitting-content examples, are examined in detail. Attention is given to rhetorical schemes of repetition because it is through these schemes that emotional pitch is adjusted in the story. Joyce's innovative use of syntactical structures to fit content, and his application of such poetic forms as rhythm and meter to simulate physical action are discussed. An examination of the end of the book, a section where rhetorical schemes and structural manipulation seems to disappear, shows how the apparent lack of connotative elements is appropriate to making a new form fit a new content. The use of form to support content in Portrait was an artistic commitment which Joyce began in Portrait. He would continue and intensify his commitment in all of his writing after Portrait. How Joyce wrote would always thereafter be determined by what he wrote about. / Graduation date: 1995

In the past, pastoral-therapeutic support was mainly approached only from the functioning of the left hemisphere of the brain. This implies that pastoral therapists mainly interacted with people in therapy at an intellectual-analytical level under modernistic influence. Since man's destitution and need changes along with time, it is essential for pastoral therapists/counsellors to supplement and adapt their modus operandi and strategies if they wish to remain relevant regarding their pastoral dealings with people. In this study the researcher attempted to formulate from the Scriptures a basis theory regarding the role of music as a whole-brain strategy in inner change. For the sake of a more holistic approach, a meta-theoretical investigation was also undertaken. To confirm the basis and meta-theoretical information, researcher entered the living reality of seven individuals during which a qualitative research was done. The results of the study, according to which the basis and meta-theoretical perspectives were placed in hermeneutical relation to one another, led to practice-theoretical guidelines within the subject domain of Practical Theology regarding the role of music as a whole-brain strategy in inner change. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (Th.M. (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

NBC?s situation comedy The Office reflects on the nature of workplace management in the 21st century. The show critiques a corporation that values conformity over individuality, while implying that promoting ?creative? employees to upper management is not credible alternative. The Office does this by focusing on Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell), a character whose unique creative working style makes him a great salesman but a poor manager. Michael?s character stands in contrast to Ryan Howard (played by B.J. Novak), who differs from Michael both in his approach to business and his success at it. The Office implies that creativity is a valuable asset for non-managerial workers, but creative management can be problematic. As workplaces continue to evolve, it is imperative to explore how creativity and bureaucracy co-exist. It may be unrealistic to expect creativity to saturate all aspects of professional life, but striking a balance between creativity and organization might be paramount in assuring job satisfaction and productivity for future generations of employees.

I use Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) to study the present deformation in the Western Basin and Range and Basin and Range - Sierra Nevada transition. I process 350 SAR data over 190·103 km2 for the period 1992 to 2002. Both stacking and time series processing were applied to produce precise (mm/yr) and high-resolution velocity map for the area. Two new processing techniques have been developed. The first technique solves for the long wavelength ambiguities of the InSAR derived velocity map that arise due to uncertainty in the orbital parameter of the satellite. The technique assimilates continuous GPS data into the InSAR time-series processing. The second technique extracts the horizontal and vertical components of the deformation field from two adjacent radar tracks. I applied stacking to study the transient deformation across the Central Nevada Seismic Belt and interseismic strain accumulation across the Eastern California Shear Zone. I show that the current deformation across the Central Nevada Seismic Belt can be explained by a combination of inter-seismic, post-seismic and anthropogenic deformation. The Post-Seismic deformation is associated with visco-elastic relaxation of the Earth's mantle in response to a centennial earthquake sequence of five ~M7 earthquakes along the Central Nevada Seismic Belt. The anthropogenic deformation is a response of the bedrock to water withdrawal in support of mining activity. A more evolved time-series approach that solves for orbital errors is applied across the Eastern California Shear Zone. The study shows that the Hunter Mountain - Panamint Valley fault system accommodates ~5 mm/yr, a faster rate than geological averages. The region of strain accumulation is a narrow band of ~10 km centered on the Hunter mountain fault, and indicates a very shallow locking depth in agreement with an active low angle normal fault system.

The main purpose of this study was to examine if, and how, persons with psychological impairments have worse living conditions than the population average. The papers intention was to investigate and describe these conditions and to analyze them based on theories of stigma, and systems theory. This paper was composed on a qualitative study in which god men have been interviewed, in addition to accomplish the purpose. This study has highlighted the four individual areas of economy, employment, housing conditions and social relations. Results have shown that people with mental disabilities tend to live in worse living conditions than the population average. The conclusion of this study is that social service should make more attention to living conditions and social problems that people with mental health difficulties have. This would enable the social worker to his authority in making correct and fair assessments, and increased opportunities to design interventions in a satisfactory manner.

The aim of the study was to describe how women and men with diagnosed heart disease experience their health-related quality of life and what differences there is between genders in their quality of life and also describe problems after receiving the diagnosis. The study also aimed to describe rehabilitation of patients with heart disease. The study was a descriptive literature study based on scientific articles. It emerged that both women and men with heart disease experienced lower quality of life compared to normative data. There was a significant difference between women and men both one year and three years after receiving the diagnosis heart disease, which showed that women experienced lower quality of life than men. The most common psychological reaction to heart disease was anxiety. Women were more anxious than men. Women were also, generally, more depressed than men after diagnosis. To suffer from heart disease resulted in great changes in lifestyle. How the patient was affected seems to depend on the social roll of the patient prior the heart disease and how the disease affected it. / Syftet med studien var att beskriva hur kvinnor och män med diagnostiserad hjärtsjukdom upplever sin hälsorelaterade livskvalitet och vad som skiljer i livskvaliteten mellan könen samt att beskriva efterföljande problem. Studien syftade också till att beskriva rehabilitering av patienter med hjärtsjukdom. Studien gjordes som en deskriptiv litteraturstudie baserad på vetenskapliga artiklar. I studien framkom att både män och kvinnor med hjärtsjukdom upplever lägre livskvalitet än normativ data. Det fanns en signifikant skillnad mellan män och kvinnor både 1 och 3 år efter hjärtsjukdom, som visade att kvinnor upplever lägre livskvalitet än män. Den vanligaste psykologiska reaktionen till hjärtsjukdom var oro. Kvinnor upplevde oro i större utsträckning än män. Kvinnor var även generellt mer deprimerade än män efter hjärtsjukdom. Att drabbas av hjärtsjukdom medförde stora livsstilsförändringar och hur patienten påverkades tycktes bero på den samhällsroll som patienten tidigare haft och hur mycket den förändrats.

There are a number of professions in which exposure to life threatening risks is part of daily routine and robots could possibly be used to avoid some of these. In fact, there are applications in which this is already done, the most prominent being bomb disposal and mine clearing. The user testing of new technology is part of achieving similar benefits for other tasks. Methods for use need to be explored, technical solutions have to be trialed, and advantages gained must be compared to the loads imposed in order to guide future development and to determine if the new tools are ready to be deployed. This thesis has performed such feasibility tests on robots within Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT). The aim has been to gain a comprehensive view of a potential user and to embed a robot amongst them in order to assess its tactical feasibility and evaluate its technical performance. An army company specialized in urban operations made up the primary user group and an iRobot Packbot Scout was the robot system in focus. Setting up the tests included identifying and modifying a number of the company’s standard behaviors to include the robot. During the two tests, which lasted over a period of three and six months respectively, it was up to the users to deploy the robot as they considered appropriate. It was found that the military rely on precise and thoroughly trained actions that can be executed with a minimum of ambiguity. Gaining similar efficiency with robots will require tactical optimization over several years. The most common application during the tests was exploration inside buildings in situations where an enemy presence was uncertain and time was not critical. Deploying the robot took more time and was less precise than traditional methods. In return it kept the soldiers out of harm’s way and enabled them to decrease weapon deployment. The range of the radio link, limited video feedback, and the operator control unit were the features constraining the system’s overall performance the most. Other properties, such as the robot’s ruggedness, size, weight, terrain ability and endurance of the robot, on the other hand, proved to match the application. The test unit was of the opinion that robots such as the Packbot Scout would be valuable to have as a standard feature. Four additional users groups were surveyed to examine to what extent the gained results had general validity for high-risk professionals. The most extensive of these included embedding a Packbot into a Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) police team for five months. It was found that the robot could be used during negotiation if upgraded with two-way audio. Further technical adaptations would also enable deployment during long term surveillance and for deploying non-lethal weapons. Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), firefighting, and Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Contamination Control (CBRN) were the other groups surveyed. These were investigated by means of interviews and observations during 1-2 days. It was found that while the five professions share many demands they also have unique needs which prevents a single type of robot from being satisfactory for all of them. The tasks within EOD and fire fighting includes grasping and moving objects of up to 50-70 kg. The MOUT, CBRN and SWAT applications are less dependent on the grasping ability, but require a robot that can be easily transported and which is able to access narrows. / QC 20100806

Då en person har en nedsatt förmåga att fatta beslut om de egna ekonomiska angelägenheterna, med andra ord utföra rättshandlingar, kan det naturligt nog medföra problem både för denne själv och för det omgivande samhället. Förmyndarskapsrätten har upprättats för att ge skydd åt dessa personer som exempelvis kan vara psykiskt eller fysiskt sjuka, äldre personer eller underåriga. I enlighet med de förmyndarskapsrättsliga bestämmelserna i föräldrabalken, skall förmyndare förvalta den omyndiges tillgångar och företräda denne i angelägenheter som har samband med tillgångarna. För myndiga personer kan en god man eller förvaltare förordnas att bevaka den enskildes rätt, förvalta tillgångar och sörja för dennes person. Ställföreträdarna fyller en väldigt viktig funktion i dagens samhälle och blir allt fler till antalet. Både godmanskap, men i synnerhet förvaltarskap, har ökat markant i flertalet av landets kommuner. I början av 2000-talet fanns det ca 51 400 godmanskap och 4 800 förvaltarskap i landet, men statistik visar en betydande procentuell ökning. Många samhällsförändringar har bidragit till det ökade behovet av ställföreträdarskap. Exempelvis får inte anställda inom vård och omsorg hantera de hjälpbehövandes tillgångar som tidigare var vanligt och den hjälpbehövandes anhöriga bor allt oftare på längre geografiskt avstånd från denne. Förändringar inom psykiatrin har också skapat en ny behovsgrupp. Den tekniska utvecklingen och det ökade informationsflödet i samhället har också medfört att allt fler människor fått problem med att uppfylla de krav som dagligen ställs på oss. Till följd av de komplicerade sammansättningar av uppgifter och ansvar som ett ställföreträdarskap i dag kan innebära, är lagstiftningens behörighets- och kvalifikationskrav, tillsammans med bestämmelserna om tillsynen över utförandet väldigt viktiga. Syftet med denna uppsats är främst att redogöra för lagstiftningen avseende förordnade förmyndare, gode män och förvaltare och de kvalifikations- och behörighetskrav som ställs på dessa. Uppsatsen redogör även för tillsynen utförd av överförmyndarna och länsstyrelsen. I uppsatsens näst sista kapitel diskuteras och analyseras huruvida lagstiftningen kan anses vara i reformbehov eller om den är tillräcklig för att uppnå ett rättssäkert ställföreträdarskap. Då uppsatsen är en juridisk framställning har rättsdogmatisk metod använts för att besvara frågeställningarna. Vidare har även en intervju genomförts, med en verksam jurist inom överförmyndarnämnden. Detta för att inhämta ytterligare underlag till analysen och för att utreda huruvida det finns interna föreskrifter för tillsynen och bedömningen av om en person är kvalificerad nog att förordnas. Av uppsatsen framgår att uppgifterna som dagens ställföreträdarskap innebär ställer ett högre krav på kompetens. Bestämmelsen om vilka krav som fordras är dock omodern både till ordval och ur lagtekniskt hänseende. Rekvisiten är mycket generellt utformade, vilket medför en varierande bedömning beroende av beslutsfattaren, som i sin tur kan innebära en betydande risk för den hjälpbehövande. Lagstiftaren bör därför överväga en ändring av bestämmelsen. Beträffande tillsynslagstiftningen och specifikt den granskning överförmyndarna och länsstyrelsen skall utföra, får den med något undantag anses ge goda förutsättningar för en kompetent granskare att uppnå ett rättssäkert ställföreträdarskap. Bristerna i tillsynen avser i stället det tillsättningsförfarande varigenom överförmyndaren utses och den avsaknad av kompetenskrav som föreligger i lagstiftningen, vilket får som följd att övriga tillsynsbestämmelser inte fyller sin funktion. Lagstiftningen avseende kvalifikations- och behörighetsgrunderna samt tillsynen får sammantaget därför anses vara i reformbehov, då den inte uppnår ändamålet med ett rättssäkert ställföreträdarskap.