This investigation grew out of my experiences while working as a mental nurse with people deemed to be insane. The behaviours which they presented and the medical and legal control exercised over them became of concern to me because I felt their rights were not being respected. A primary issue is the extent to which adherence to the medical-somatic view of insanity held by psychiatrists, lawyers and politicians has led to the exclusion of viable custody and treatment alternatives. The purpose of this research is to question the role and functions of mental nurses. It suggests that 'caretakers' might be a more suitable title for such workers with the insane. The hypothesis underlying the research links the work of 'caretakers' of the insane to changes in government policies and legislation; the thesis examines this hypothesis in the light of changes in the roles and functions of 'caretakers' over the period from 1890 to 1990. Research activities included the examination of primary sources, Hansard, newspapers, and professional journals. Interviews were also carried out with nine contemporary caretakers who have worked with the 1959 and the 1983 Mental Health Acts. These research methods provided an historical background to the debates in the Houses of Parliament when mental health legislation was discussed; information from the writings of the professionals who worked with the insane at the times of new mental health legislation; data on the public and media debate of these issues; and information on the perceptions and duties of caretakers working with the insane at the times of new mental health legislation. The research findings show that both those who cared for the insane and the insane themselves have been subjected to changes brought about by mental health legislation since 1890. These changes affected the working conditions of the caretakers and the social control and rights of the insane. The changes in the work of caretakers led to new directions in their education. Workers with the insane became a part of nursing by adopting the somatic approach to care. When this occurred, many of the care activities of keepers, attendants and mental nurses became redundant. Over time, there has been a move to, and then away from, the clinical-somatic model of nursing towards caretaking skills such as group work, therapeutic community skills, counselling skills and psychotherapy skills. These caretaking skills are seen by contemporary caretakers as going beyond their custodial and social control functions, towards providing a space in which people can be respected, encouraged, supported and be open to new insights.

This thesis reports a study of women, living in London, who became mothers when aged 16-19 years, and of their children. The women and children were white and black and came from a range of ethnic groups. In late pregnancy 102, 16-19 year old women were given short interviews and 79 were given in-depth interviews. Data from 85 of these combined samples were analyzed when their children were six months old and from 68 when they were 21 months old. Sixty two of their children were given a developmental test 21 months after birth. The study aimed to identify women's reasons for becoming pregnant and going on to have children; to get a good picture of how the women and their children fared over the course of the study and to consider intra-group differences that may have led some women to fare well and others to fare badly. The findings suggest that mothers under twenty are not as problematic as they are generally believed to be. Most of the women were aware of the contraceptive methods available. They had become pregnant for a range of reasons. These included wanting a child; not minding whether they conceived; their male partners' reported lack of concern about contraception; contraceptive failure and chance. The majority of the women did not consider that childbearing should be inextricably linked with marriage and many reported negative views about the benefits of marriage for women. Nonetheless, most of the single women expected to marry at some time. Most women and their children were faring well despite high rates of poverty. Good outcomes were partly mediated by the social support that women received (particularly from their own mothers who were generally more supportive than their children's fathers) and by the fact that their poor educational qualifications and labour market experiences meant that, for the great majority, early motherhood was not disruptive of their other life course careers.

A review of the literature suggests there is a gap in the research on the experiences of staff working in private, voluntary and independent (PVI) early years settings in relation to their experiences of children demonstrating difficult and concerning behaviour. Previous research has predominantly focused on practitioner experiences of behaviour in mainstream settings (Merrett and Taylor, 1994; Stephenson, Linfoot and Martin, 2010). Consideration of practitioner experiences of training and support in relation to behaviour were also important given the potential impact of the staff group on a child’s socio-emotional development (Sylva, Melhuish, Sammons, Siraj-Blatchford and Taggart, 2004). A two stage mixed methods design was adopted to address three research questions: 1. What are the behaviours that early years practitioners in private, voluntary and independent nursery settings find difficult to manage and how concerning do they perceive these behaviours to be? 2. What do early years practitioners think are the factors influencing children’s behaviour and what do they find helpful when managing behaviour in their setting? 3. What training and support are available to early years practitioners in these settings to help them manage difficult behaviour? Questionnaire data was gathered from 63 practitioners working in PVI settings in one local authority. Semi-structured interviews, analysed using thematic analysis were conducted with a sample of the practitioners (n=11). The findings from the two stages of the data collection were combined during the data analysis under thematic headings. The findings from the questionnaires and interviews were then discussed in relation to the previously introduced literature and relevant psychological frameworks, e.g. Bronfrenbrenner’s ecological systems model (Bronfrenbrenner, 1974;1994) and Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969). Limitations of the study were critiqued and future research areas and implications for the role of Educational Psychologists discussed.

Across the European Union, an aggregate professional field can be identified: the “social professions”. This field is characterised by being composed, in most countries, of two traditional professions with specific higher education programmes: “social work” and “social pedagogy”. The thesis explores their mutual relationship by revisiting theories from Germany, the home of social pedagogy, where the two paradigms have, in higher education policy-making, largely merged in the second half of the twentieth century. This development at the level of curriculum prescription indicates the so-called “convergence paradigm” advocated, for many years, by some academic authors. Alternatives to convergence were known, however, and an analysis of material from other EU countries may serve to reassess the thinking which has become orthodoxy in Germany. The thesis established the concepts of “social work/social pedagogy dichotomy” (the fact that the two paradigms are separate and discernible) and “social work/social pedagogy convergence”, the latter drawing upon the German concept. Using these analytical tools, first to revisit and characterise the developments observed in Germany, then to assess material from Denmark and Belgium (French Community), the thesis shows that dichotomy has continued to be a determining factor of professional education in Denmark and Belgium, while there are no signs of convergence. The discussion is based on the 15-year period starting with the enactment of the relevant EU directive on mutual recognition of qualifications (1989–2004). By ending in 2004, the investigation enables recent English developments in relation to the exploration and possible future introduction of “social pedagogy”, alongside “social work”, to be taken into consideration, thereby helping to inform current English and British debates.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (M Eng (Control Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted

The objectives of this investigation were to: • Develop a capacitance measuring device that can be used for measuring composition of ethanol-water mixtures. • Implement this measurement technique on a laboratory clistillation column for top product composition measurement and control. • Compare the results obtained in this manner with previously used inferred measurements by temperature. Experiments were conducted to calibrate the capacitance cell ie, to obtain a relation between composition of an ethanol and water mixture and the output of the capacitance cell. Open loop tests were executed on the distillation column to determine if the capacitance device had any negative influence on measurement compared to composition measurements via temperature. Top product composition control using the capacitance cell under dosed loop conditions was also tested, to observe the capacitance cell's performance. The capacitance cell gave repeatable readings during the calibration procedure. In the open loop tests, process models were obtained for control purposes and no negative influence was observed. The capacitance cell's closed loop responses were observed to be satisfactory. It was simple to construct, easy to operate and proved to be a relatively inexpensive device. In the final analysis, the capacitance cell proved to be a useful device in direct measurements of composition of binary mixtures, and offers scope for further development in its application to the control of top product composition in distillation columns of industrial scale. / Dissertation (M Eng (Control Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Chemical Engineering / unrestricted

Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 27-30).

No / As a highly visual and social species we communicate significantly via our physical appearance. Thus, it is unsurprising that the phenotypic aspects (including color) of our skin and hair feature prominently in such communication. Perhaps, one of the more potent reminders of aging is the change in pigmentation from birth to puberty and through to young adulthood, middle age, and beyond. Indeed, the hair bulb melanocyte may be viewed as an exquisitely sensitive aging sensor. In this context, we can appreciate that the loss of pigmentation from the hair tends to be earlier and much more striking than the age-associated pigmentation changes that we see in the epidermis. This phenotypic difference between the hair follicle and the epidermis-melanocyte subpopulations is of considerable interest, not least as both subpopulations originate from the same embyrologic neural crest and that the melanoctye stem cells in the adult hair follicle can occupy vacant niches in the epidermis. A major source of the differential aging of melanocytes in the hair bulb vs. the epidermis is likely due to the former¿s stringent coupling to the hair growth cycle when compared with the latter¿s continuous and UV-sensitive melanogenesis. Also likely to be involved is the maintenance of permissive microenvironments in these different skin compartments including their differing redox environments and variable connectivity with neuroendocrine axis. Over the last few years, we and others have striven to develop advanced cell culture methodologies for isolated hair follicle melanocytes and for intact anagen hair follicle organ culture, which may provide research tools to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of hair follicle pigmentation. Others have assessed the robustness of the hair follicle-melanocyte stem compartment with age and other functional stressors. In the long term, it may be feasible to develop strategies to modulate some of these aging-associated changes in the hair follicle that impinge particularly of the melanocyte populations.

In this thesis, we study the unit root tests which includes the ADF, PP and KPSS tests, the long memory tests such as the R/S and GPH tests, and the applications of these methods in high frequency financial data analysis. The software SPLUS was adopted to analyze data and correction of the SPLUS program in unit tests are also proposed. To apply these two test methods in high frequency data, we quoted the library, HFlibrary designed by Yan and Zivot in 2003 for preliminary data analysis and propose a new library HFanalysis, which can be used in correcting high frequency data (excluding N.A. value, sorting transactions and retrieve a certain time of transactions), obtaining equi-distanced time intervals and testing for unit root and long memory properties. In additions, we apply this proposed library to simulate the power of traditional unit root methods such as the ADF test and long memory test method such as the R/S and to perform an empirical study. Finally, we explore the power of the ADF for testing data simulated from a threshold unit root model and simulate the percentiles of the null distribution of the following threshold unit root tests: WALD, LM, LR and W£f.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal verificar a viabilidade econômica financeira da autoprodução direta e interligada, isto é, elaborar uma comparação entre uma usina hidrelétrica ligada diretamente à unidade de consumo, e uma usina ligada ao Sistema Interligado Nacional, com potência e energia asseguradas. Para isso, foram utilizados, como premissas, uma indústria de alumínio que, como parte integrante dos grandes consumidores de energia brasileira, é um tipo de indústria eletro-intensiva, e emprega milhares de pessoas direta e indiretamente; também uma usina hidrelétrica, que neste trabalho foi a UHE Piraju, usina de concessão da CIA BRASILEIRA DE ALUMÍNIO, que gentilmente cedeu os dados de geração física real. Foram adotadas as seguintes metodologias para comparação da viabilidade, utilizando um cenário de geração e preços SPOT dos anos de 2006 e 2007: (i) Autoprodução Direta: Geração física real, comercializando excedentes e comprando energia do mercado ao preço SPOT quando necessário, e considerando todos os encargos e benefícios deste tipo de ligação; (ii) Autoprodução Conectada no SIN: Energia Assegurada Sazonalizada em 3 cenários distintos, Flat, com sazonalização moderada e sazonalização otimizada, considerando também os custos de conexão e encargos pertinentes para cada cenário. Os resultados apresentados mostram que, por pouca margem de diferença, foi mais vantajoso o cenário com a energia assegurada otimizada, porém, é possível verificar que, ponderando os resultados apresentados nos diversos cenários, verificamos que é mais viável a usina ligada diretamente à carga, pois a previsibilidade do mercado de preços de curto prazo é pequena, e dificilmente se acertaria com precisão os PLD´s registrados no ano seguinte ao da sazonalização. Contudo, o Decreto no 5.163, de 30 de Julho de 2004, através do Artigo 71, somente permite que usinas sejam ligadas diretamente à carga se estiverem dentro do mesmo sítio. O proposto é a inclusão de um novo parágrafo no Artigo 71 com condições de economicidade para a permissão da ligação da usina diretamente ao consumo. / The main goal of this study is to verify the economic financial feasibility of the direct self production, it means, of a hydropower unit directly connected to a consumption unit and to a hydropower unit connected to the SIN, with guaranteed power and energy. For this purpose, the study used as pattern an aluminum industry, which, as part of the Brazilian hall of the major energy users, a type of electric-intensive industry, and that involves thousands of employees directly and indirectly, as well as an hydroelectric power unit, which in this study was the UHE Piraju, the energy authorized supplier unit of the CIA BRASILEIRA DE ALUMÍNIO, who gently provided the real generation data. The following methodology were adopted to compare the feasibility, using a generation scenario and SPOT values of 2006 and 2007: (i) Direct Self Production: Real generation, trading leftovers and acquiring market energy at SPOT values, when required, and considering all costs and benefits of this type of connection; (ii) SIN Connected Self production: guaranteed seasoned energy in different scenarios, Flat, with seasonalization moderated and seasonalization optimized, also considering the connection and applicable costs for each scenario. The presented results indicated that, for a small difference, the most advantageous scenario was the one with optimized guaranteed energy, however, it is possible to verify that evaluating the presented results in the different cases, it was verified that is more feasible the unit directed connected to a demand, since the forecast of short term values market is small, and it would hardly precise ascertain with the registered PLD (Settlement Price for the Differences) in the following year of the seasonalization. However, the Act n. 5.163, July 30, 2004, through the Article 71 only allows power units to be connected to the demand if they are in the same site. The proposal is the inclusion of a new paragraph in the Article 71 with economic conditions in order to allow the connection between the power unit to the consumption.