Ghana's mining sector is a significant contributor to the national economy; however, environmental degradation continues to stigmatize the sector. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore experiences and perspectives of middle managers on how to drive compliance with EPA regulations and standards in Ghana's mining sector. Ajzen's theory of planned behavior was the conceptual framework for this phenomenological study. A purposive sample of 20 middle managers from Ghana's mining sector participated in interviews, which were transcribed and then coded to generate common themes. The primary research question involved exploring factors that promote employee compliance in Ghana's mining sector. Three critical themes that emerged from the study were (a) business benefits of compliance, (b) factors that promote employee compliance, and (c) obstacles to compliance. The implications for positive social change include the potential for community members to experience reduced environmentally related health challenges with concomitant increases in their quality of life

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper discusses ongoing regulatory effects on efforts aimed at developing data infrastructures that assist test engineers in achieving information superiority and for maintaining their information, and on possible architectural frameworks for resolving the engineer’s need versus the regulatory requirements. Since current commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems are targeted primarily at business environments such as back office applications, financial sectors, and manufacturing, these COTS systems do not provide sufficient focus for managing the unique aspects of flight test data and associated artifacts (documents, drawings, pretest data, etc.). This paper presents our ongoing efforts for deploying a storage infrastructure independent enterprise data management system for maintaining vital up-to-date information and for managing the archival of such data.

From the moment Marie Curie announced the existence of radium, the strange new element captured the imagination of the American public. Radium, it seemed, could do anything. It gave off its own light and heat and appeared to realize the ancient alchemical dream of transmutation. It also showed promise as a medicine. The press ran with the idea that radium was a panacea that would cure everything from cancer to wife-beating. Soon it became impossible for the public to know what to believe when it came to radium and its effects on the body. Patent medicine companies exploited the murkiness surrounding ideas about radium, marketing a slew of products that claimed to harness the element’s healing and energizing powers. Meanwhile, physicians made slow, careful progress in defining the parameters of radium therapy, narrowing their focus to cancer. The popularity of radium patent medicines peaked in the 1920’s when hundreds of thousands of Americans purchased one or more of the dozens of radium products that proliferated at the time. Government regulators and members of the medical establishment sought to push these products from the market, but loopholes in the regulatory apparatus created under the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 allowed many of these companies to operate freely. Two scandals—the saga of the “Radium Girls” and the death of Eben Byers, a well-known industrialist who died after drinking over 1000 bottles of a radioactive tonic called Radithor—damaged radium’s image in the 1920’s and 1930’s. By the late 1930’s, strengthened regulatory laws helped push radioactive products from the marketplace. During World War II, scientists discovered artificial isotopes that proved more effective and less expensive than radium in the treatment of disease. For decades Americans had struggled to make sense of a scientific discovery that seemed to challenge fundamental ideas about the nature of the body and its relationship to the physical world. The ambiguities surrounding the element posed a unique challenge to progressive ideals of expertise and professionalization while providing a malleable image of energy and health that a variety of commercial interests could deploy. / text

<p>This thesis analyzes the relationship between trade restrictiveness and corruption levels in Europe and tests the robustness of the results using two different measures of corruption; Corruption Perceptions Index constructed by Transparency International and World Governance Indicators; Control of Corruption constructed by the World Bank. The results show that the outcome differs among the two indices and that previous results found in studies may be subject to data choice and measurement errors. A majority of previous studies have used trade openness in the form of imports share in GDP, or trade openness indices as variables that explain corruption levels. This thesis focuses on trade restrictiveness. It also investigates the differences between restrictiveness and openness in their impacts on corruption. The author of this thesis finds a weak relation between trade restrictiveness and corruption on one hand and an even weaker relation between trade openness and corruption on the other hand when controlling for other variables that may have an impact on corruption. The limited time-frame could be an explanation for this result, i.e. trade policy effects. A longer time-frame would have probably resulted in a bigger difference between variables for trade openness and trade restrictiveness. It is found that the variables showing to have the largest impact on corruption levels in Europe are those associated with historical dimensions such as whether the country has had a tradition of the church being separated from the state or whether being a previously planned economy. Most importantly, the thesis presents suggestive evidence on the fact that not all government involvement increases corruption. Rather, it is regulations that limit internal competition have a large impact on corruption levels in Europe. It has also been found that not all government involvement in the economy implies higher corruption levels. The findings outlined are in line with the common perception that corruption is highly dependent on previous values of corruption and that radical policy interventions are needed to curb corruption.</p>

Epidemiological studies suggest that both retinoid and carotenoid intakes are inversely correlated with the incidence of human cancers. Animal studies show that both retinoids and carotenoids inhibit tumor cell growth. Both retinoids and carotenoids activate the cytotoxicity function of macrophages in animal experiments. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the molecular mechanism for 13-cis retinoic acid (13-cRA) and beta-carotene (BC) induced immunomodulation which could explain their anti-cancer affects. The effects of 13-cRA and BC were studied on various subpopulations of T-lymphocytes both in vitro and in vivo. For in vitro studies, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were incubated with test compounds at clinically achievable concentrations (10⁻⁸M) for three days. Then the cells were stained with monoclonal antibodies followed by the analysis of flow cytometer. For in vivo studies, PBMC were collected from Barrett's esophagus or oral leukoplakia patients during treatment with 13-cRA (1mg/kg/day) or BC (30 mg/day), respectively. Then the cells were analyzed with monoclonal antibodies and flow cytometry. Both compounds showed the capability of stimulating different subpopulations of T-lymphocytes. 13-cRA predominantly increased the number of T-helper cells, their interleukin 2 (IL-2) receptors and their response to mitogens. Whereas, BC elevated the number of Natural Kill (NK) cells, their IL-2 receptors and their cytotoxicity against K562 target cells. Though these immunomodulatory effects appeared to be unaffected by the presence and cytotoxic functions of macrophages, cytokines seemed to have an important role in the retinoid- and carotenoid-induced immunomodulation. Plasma levels of IL-2 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) measured by ELISA procedures were increased in patients treated for two months with 13-cRA and BC respectively. Anti-IL-2 and anti-TNF antibodies blocked the retinoic- and carotenoid-induced immunomodulation in in vitro studies. These results indicate that 13-cRA, activating T-helper cells with IL-2 production, and BC, activating NK cells with TNF release, induced immunostimulation which might be able to provide the anti-cancer affects in part seen in epidemiological studies.

Are political finance regulations supportive or counterproductive to achieving democratic ideals? Do they foster political pluralism and fight corruption? Do they infringe upon political rights like freedom of speech? If they infringe upon rights while fighting corruption, what is the lesser evil? There are so many questions that fuel the debate on political finance regulation. Scholars rarely, if ever, arrive at a consensus in answering any of them. There are many studies that look for relationships between regulations and specific variables in individual countries, but seldom have scholars searched for relationships between regulations and broad measurements of democracy like index scores. This study discovers that positive relationships do exist between index scores and regulations even if they do not reach a meaningful degree of statistical significance in most cases.

This study was conducted to determine what regulations are, and should be, involved in opening and operating a bed and breakfast in the State of Texas. Specifically, this study examined bed and breakfast regulations in Texas to identify the existence of, or need for, standards related to various legislation (including, but not limited to, zoning ordinances, building and fire codes, and insurance requirements). Bed and breakfast owners/operators in Texas made up the random sample that produced 106 usable survey responses. Regulations are in place at the state, county, and city levels of government. Bed and breakfast owners/operators were most concerned about insurance related matters, and various aspects of effective promotion and advertising.

This work entitled "Legal and internal regulations in Czech armed forces" endeavours to tackle the relation between legal and internal regulations in public administration focusing on their hierarchy, quantity, liability in specific area of armed forces. At first sight military service is independent on legal code, because there is wide range and amount of relatively autonomous service regulations and official channels. Career soldiers and civil employees have to obey not only the texts of legislation composed of laws, govermental directions etc., but also must maintain discipline and work rules founded on internal orders, guidelines and advices. All commanders and managers as military superiors are obliged to enforce their authority through this regulations. Relation between legal and internal level is not clear. There are many doubts and questions based on facts regarding for instance these features and issues of any internal system of rules: delegation of authority to creation and publishing; verification of compatibility and harmony with legal framework; persistence, integrity, perpetual modifications and amendments.

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.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 1977. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Bibliography: leaves 157-163. / by Leslie I. Boden. / Ph.D.