Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Melinda Stafford Markham / Walter R. Schumm / This study produces a grounded theory of how parents make decisions regarding the custody arrangements of their children in the divorce process. Eleven parent/adolescent pairs in shared physical and legal custody arrangements were interviewed. Ten factors were found to influence the custody arrangement decisions of divorcing parents: former partner, children, work, new partner, use of a lawyer, role of family, parenting role, place of residence, finances, and divorce. Parents also weighed perceived costs and rewards when making custody arrangement decisions. In addition, an understanding of the involvement of an adolescent in the custody arrangement decisions was gained through this research. The majority of adolescents in this study had some type of input in the custody arrangements at one point or another. Parents and adolescents both expressed concerns with involving adolescents in custody arrangement decisions as well as an appropriate age for adolescent involvement, and how to determine when an adolescent is ready to be involved in the custody arrangement decisions. Custody arrangement decisions are complex decisions that parents and adolescents face; a number of factors are considered and the custody arrangement decision making process varies for all families.

This research focused on determining the roles and institutional arrangements for economic regulation of urban water services in Sub- Saharan Africa. Urban water service delivery mainly supplied by state owned utilities is constrained due to many factors one of which is related to insufficient or lack of a clear economic regulatory framework. The research used a multiple case study approach and systematically analysed the roles and institutional arrangements of economic regulation of urban water services in three countries of Ghana, Mozambique and Zambia. Based on literature as the source of information, the research developed the existing political and socio-economic environment in the different countries which can affect the design and determination of the roles and institutional arrangements for economic regulation. A further analysis was made of the perceptions on the roles and institutional arrangements of the regulatory framework in the Sub-Saharan African context through a questionnaire distributed beyond the three case countries. The study obtained primary data from focus group discussions, key informant interviews, official documents and observations. Lessons obtained through literature from regulatory institutions in other continents have also been included and these are Jamaica, Latvia, Jakarta in Indonesia, and England and Wales. The factors which can affect the roles and institutional arrangements of economic regulation of urban water services were divided into three groups as: including country governance, socioeconomic and sectoral factors. Country governance factors, which include political stability and fragility, are a key factor in the decision of whether to establish a regulatory agency. On the other hand, socio-economic factors influence the focus or areas which must not be ignored by economic regulation. The third type of factors which include the robustness of a policy framework, and performance levels of utilities, affect the effectiveness and efficiency of an economic regulator. Based on the evidence from the research, economic regulation in Sub-Saharan Africa should address five key roles, which are [i] approval of tariffs that will lead to service providers achieving commercial viability, [ii] "consumer protection" [iii] monitoring and enforcing performance standards, [iv] setting up of a knowledge bank on urban water services, and [v] ensuring that the poor gain sustained access to water services. There are a number of specific regulatory functions within each role. Sub-Saharan African countries are in a unique situation where the urban poor comprise as much as 60% of the urban population and so cannot be ignored in the design of a regulatory framework. The conclusion from this research is that in order to achieve the perceived benefits of economic regulation of urban water services in Sub-Saharan Africa, and subject to conducive and appropriate political and socio-economic environment, the more appropriate institutional arrangements is an autonomous regulatory agency. The autonomy of the regulatory agency will be enhanced if it has its own legal status, and is able to develop, manage and control its own budget financed from a regulatory fee charged on the regulated water providers. Governments should be willing to relinquish regulatory decision making powers to this non-political and non-governmental body. The reporting and appointing mechanisms for the board could also have an influence on the autonomy of the regulator. The research further concludes that economic regulation of urban water services is a necessary but perhaps not sufficient condition for efficient and effective delivery of urban water services. It is not a panacea to the enormous problems of urban water services but can play a very effective role. The research has further found that it is too early to determine the impact of utility regulation on the performance levels of utilities in those countries that have a clearly defined regulatory framework. Utility regulation is still in its infancy in Sub-Saharan Africa and its impact is therefore a subject for further research.

M. Tech. Business Administration / Working from home is a worldwide trend and effect companies in various ways. With advancement of the information technology and Internet the virtual organizations have become a trend with more and more professionals working from home. Several studies have focused mostly in developed nations with little or no research found in the South African context. This study focused on South African circumstances and examined the cost saving implications for Business Connexion and their employees if they would be able and allowed to work from home. Further, relationships between operational and professional factors, with virtual work were studied.

Firms' use of external labor arrangements (ELAs), such as temporary, contract and seasonal workers, has become increasingly prevalent over the last two decades. Despite the increasing importance of this phenomenon, little is known about firms' reasons for using ELAs. Most research to date has been exploratory, using qualitative methods or archival data not well suited to the constructs. The result of this research has been a long and often contradictory list of proposed antecedents of ELA use. In this study, I tested the ability of the transaction costs theory to predict when firms will fill a given job using an ELA rather that a permanent employment relationship. According to this theory, three characteristics of the job will determine whether the job will be filled using an ELA: transaction-specific investment, likelihood of repetition, and uncertainty of performance. Firms will be less likely to staff a given job using an ELA when the job requires investment in idiosyncratic skills, when the firm is likely to require a person with that set of skills regularly, and when performance in that job is difficult to measure.

This paper deals with the phenomenon of the financial collateral arrangements, under which parties transfer book-entry securities. It focuses on the legal questions link to the international element. Financial collateral arrangements typically occur in securities repurchase and securities lending. These transactions play important role in order to guarantee liquidity cash and proper functioning of capital markets in the European Union. Simultaneously, securities are no longer only of a tangible goods nature; instead they exists as electronic records in securities accounts. This is why conflicts of law issues have become so paramount. This study analyses the approach of Czech law to financial collateral arrangements. In particular, if the collateral is represented by a book-entry share, bond or fund unit. It pays attention to such a matter from the national as well as the harmonised EU perspective. On an EU level, such arrangements are primarily regulated by the Collateral Directive (FCAD). The Hague Convection on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities held with Intermediaries, which has had a profound impact on the notion of book-entry securities conflicts of law rules, is specifically discussed too. Both methods to provide financial collateral, i.e. the outright transfer and...

Title: Regime arrangements for weight modification at the preschool children Objectives: The aim of this master thesis is the plan of optimal regime arrangement for weight modification of preschool children in the environment of kindergarten. Also then composition of week dietary plan for facilities of this type. Methods: For the appraisal of situation and conditions of preschool education in concrete kindergartens I have used the method of comparison, direct observation and in-depth interview with head officers and teachers of particular schools. In the empirical part of this thesis I have realized the two- kind inquiry. First was focused on head and educational operatives of schools, second then on parents of the children. I have also carried out the measuring of basic physical characteristics of the children in selected kindergarten. Results: Results present information about the situation of preschool education in the Czech republic through executed analysis of selected kindergarten. It has been proved, that material ensuring of kindergarten determines leisure activities of the children. The offer of school above-standard motion activities is influenced also by the village size, in which are particular preschool educational facilities situated. The level of education of the pedagogical...

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / MBA Professional Report / The purpose of project is to examine two alternatives among the numerous recommendations to improve United Nations Peacekeeping. The first calls for improved centralization of United Nations Peacekeeping. The second calls for unification of Peacekeeping operations through joint efforts (political, economical, cultural, religious, military, etc.) at the regional level in order to include the parties involved in the conflict and their neighboring states in Africa, America, Asia and Europe. The goal of this project is to identify and understand the debate about the changing role of the United Nations Peacekeeping and to identify ways to more effectively manage operations. / Lieutenant Colonel, Bulgarian Army

This thesis mainly concerns the cohomology of the moduli spaces ℳ3[2] and ℳ3,1[2] of genus 3 curves with level 2 structure without respectively with a marked point and some of their natural subspaces. A genus 3 curve which is not hyperelliptic can be realized as a plane quartic and the moduli spaces 𝒬[2] and 𝒬1[2] of plane quartics without respectively with a marked point are given special attention. The spaces considered come with a natural action of the symplectic group Sp(6,𝔽2) and their cohomology groups thus become Sp(6,𝔽2)-representations. All computations are therefore Sp(6,𝔽2)-equivariant. We also study the mixed Hodge structures of these cohomology groups. The computations for ℳ3[2] are mainly via point counts over finite fields while the computations for ℳ3,1[2] primarily uses a description due to Looijenga in terms of arrangements associated to root systems. This leads us to the computation of the cohomology of complements of toric arrangements associated to root systems. These varieties come with an action of the corresponding Weyl group and the computations are equivariant with respect to this action.

Student Number : 0414810F - MA research report - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of Humanities / The goal of this research report was to profile the coping strategies of households in Thorndale to the effects and impacts of the 2002/2003 drought. Thorndale, the study site is prone to drought and thus experiences severe drought almost every year. The rationale behind the selection of Thorndale for the study was based on this fact, in addition to the fact that the study area is relatively unstudied. The study’s major findings included inadequate agricultural extension service delivery in the community, while the drought’s impacts were economic, social, nutritional and health, food shortage, environmental and wildlife. The most significant and largest impact was water shortage. These impacts led to increased household dependency on the natural capital component of livelihoods in addition to prostitution and the community’s institutional arrangements. The main constraints households encountered in response to the drought’s impacts included the lack of employment opportunities, financial and infrastructural problems among others. It is recommended that with respect to food security, efforts should be made to ensure the trickle down effect of national level assessment of vulnerability on annual basis to rural households in South Africa’s drought-prone areas including Thorndale, in order to improve timely and practical solutions to issues of food insecurity. Furthermore, it should be ensured that the national level benefits of early warning systems trickle down to the local and community levels including Thorndale. Additionally, agricultural extension service delivery in the community needs to be improved.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo explicar as relações entre Governança (G) e Inovação Tecnológica (T), que ocorrem na manufatura de produto, processo e gestão, nas firmas que operam em Arranjos Produtivos Locais - APLs (A). O foco do estudo dá-se nas firmas que operam no APL Calçadista de Birigüi (SP), ao longo dos anos 1990. De acordo com a literatura especializada, tal relação, pode ser governada por soluções de mercado, de uma firma ou por cooperação. Todavia, apesar dessa relação ser discutida na literatura de APLs a partir do início dos anos 1990, ainda se apresenta muito básica, isto é, existe escassez de estudos que abordem de forma direta a questão, particularmente, em APLs que não integram cadeias produtivas globais. Assim, investigar as formas pelas quais as estruturas de governança (EG) se manifestam na difusão tecnológica que as firmas contratam, se torna relevante. Para esse fim o trabalho envolveu inicialmente, a elaboração de um modelo, cuja construção se deu a partir da revisão de teorias na literatura existente. O modelo propõe um conjunto de relações, nas quais se concebe a (T) nas firmas de APLs, sendo desencadeada por distintos fatores de influência (FI), os quais representam as formas pelas quais as (EG) se manifestam. A verificação empírica do modelo deu-se através de pesquisa qualitativa de caráter exploratório, pelo método \"estudo de caso\", junto a empresas e lideranças do APL de Birigüi (SP), em que foi feita a identificação da (T) a partir de (FI). Observou-se, aderência do modelo proposto, qual seja, uma vez que as firmas tomaram as decisões da (T) a partir de (FI), então, na origem dos (FI) identificaram-se as (EG), revelando quais foram as formas atuantes, que no APL de Birigüi (SP), ao longo dos anos 1990, governaram através de diferentes mecanismos de coordenação as relações interfirmas no processo de (T). A partir dessa revelação, criaram-se condições para explicar a relação entre \"G\", \"T\" e \"A\", ficando mais claras as soluções da (T) impostas de forma hierárquica, as criadas nas bases (cooperação), as desenvolvidas pela empresa líder, ou as soluções de mercado. Por fim, o estudo propõe pensar-se a (T) nas firmas de APLs a partir de (FI), pois é a partir deles que as (EG) se manifestam. / The purpose of this work is to explain the relations between Governance (G) and Technological Innovation (T) that occur in product manufacturing, process and management in the enterprises operating in Local Productive Arrangements - APLs (A). The study is the focused on the enterprises operating in the Birigüi (SP) shoe manufacturing APL along the 1990s. According to the specialized literature, such relations may be governed by market solutions, either of a firm or by cooperation. However, although this relation is discussed in the APL literature as from the early 1990s, it still shows to be very basic, that is, there are few studies directly approaching the issue, particularly those on APLs that do not participate in global productive chains. It is therefore relevant to investigate the ways in which governance structures (GS) appear in the technological dissemination hired by firms. For this end, the work initially involved the elaboration of a model, the construction of which was conducted as from the revision of theories in the literature. The model proposes a set of relations, in which the (T) in the APL firms is conceived, triggered by distinct influence factors (IF), which represent the forms by which (GS) are manifested. The empirical verification of the model was conducted by exploratory character qualitative research, using the case study method, with companies and leaderships of the Birigüi (SP) APL, in which the identification of the (T) was made as from (IF). Adherence to the model proposed was observed; that is, once the firms took the (T) decisions from (IF), (GS) were then identified in the origin of the (IF), revealing which were the actuating forms governing the inter-firms relations by means of different coordination mechanisms in the (T) process in the Birigüi (SP) APL along the 1990s. After this verification, conditions were established to explain between \"G\", \"T\" and \"A\" relation, clarifying the (T) solutions hierarchically imposed: the ones established at the bases (cooperation), the ones developed by the leading company, or market solutions. Finally, the study proposes an analysis of the (T) in the APL firms from (IF), as these are the ones making (GS) emerge.