Yes / Recruiting isolated older adults to clinical trials is complex, time-consuming and difficult. Previous studies have suggested querying existing databases to identify appropriate potential participants. We aim to compare recruitment techniques (general practitioner (GP) mail-outs, community engagement and clinician referrals) used in three randomised controlled trial (RCT) studies assessing the feasibility or effectiveness of two preventative interventions in isolated older adults (the Lifestyle Matters and Putting Life In Years interventions). Methods: During the three studies (the Lifestyle Matters feasibility study, the Lifestyle Matters RCT, the Putting Life In Years RCT) data were collected about how participants were recruited. The number of letters sent by GP surgeries for each study was recorded. In the Lifestyle Matters RCT, we qualitatively interviewed participants and intervention facilitators at 6 months post randomisation to seek their thoughts on the recruitment process. Results: Referrals were planned to be the main source of recruitment in the Lifestyle Matters feasibility study, but due to a lack of engagement from district nurses, community engagement was the main source of recruitment. District nurse referrals and community engagement were also utilised in the Lifestyle Matters and Putting Life In Years RCTs; both mechanisms yielded few participants. GP mail-outs were the main source of recruitment in both the RCTs, but of those contacted, recruiting yield was low (< 3%). Facilitators of the Lifestyle Matters intervention questioned whether the most appropriate individuals had been recruited. Participants recommended that direct contact with health professionals would be the most beneficial way to recruit. Conclusions: Recruitment to the Lifestyle Matters RCT did not mirror recruitment to the feasibility study of the same intervention. Direct district nurse referrals were not effective at recruiting participants. The majority of participants were recruited via GP mail-outs, which may have led to isolated individuals not being recruited to the trials. Further research is required into alternative recruitment techniques, including respondent-driven sampling plus mechanisms which will promote health care professionals to recruit vulnerable populations to research. / Medical Research Council (grant number G1001406); Sheffield Health and Social Research Consortium; National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme (project number 09/ 3004/01)

Yes / Recruiting isolated older adults to clinical trials is complex, time-consuming and difficult. Previous studies have suggested querying existing databases to identify appropriate potential participants. We aim to compare recruitment techniques (general practitioner (GP) mail-outs, community engagement and clinician referrals) used in three randomised controlled trial (RCT) studies assessing the feasibility or effectiveness of two preventative interventions in isolated older adults (the Lifestyle Matters and Putting Life In Years interventions). Methods: During the three studies (the Lifestyle Matters feasibility study, the Lifestyle Matters RCT, the Putting Life In Years RCT) data were collected about how participants were recruited. The number of letters sent by GP surgeries for each study was recorded. In the Lifestyle Matters RCT, we qualitatively interviewed participants and intervention facilitators at 6 months post randomisation to seek their thoughts on the recruitment process. Results: Referrals were planned to be the main source of recruitment in the Lifestyle Matters feasibility study, but due to a lack of engagement from district nurses, community engagement was the main source of recruitment. District nurse referrals and community engagement were also utilised in the Lifestyle Matters and Putting Life In Years RCTs; both mechanisms yielded few participants. GP mail-outs were the main source of recruitment in both the RCTs, but of those contacted, recruiting yield was low (< 3%). Facilitators of the Lifestyle Matters intervention questioned whether the most appropriate individuals had been recruited. Participants recommended that direct contact with health professionals would be the most beneficial way to recruit. Conclusions: Recruitment to the Lifestyle Matters RCT did not mirror recruitment to the feasibility study of the same intervention. Direct district nurse referrals were not effective at recruiting participants. The majority of participants were recruited via GP mail-outs, which may have led to isolated individuals not being recruited to the trials. Further research is required into alternative recruitment techniques, including respondent-driven sampling plus mechanisms which will promote health care professionals to recruit vulnerable populations to research. / The Lifestyle Matters RCT was funded by the Medical Research Council (grant number G1001406); Sheffield Health and Social Research Consortium; National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme (project number 09/ 3004/01)

This paper investigates the persistence of agricultural practices funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation (CDFA OEFI). The central inquiry revolves around determining the most effective behavior model for analyzing persistence, comparing the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA), Comprehensive Action Determination Model (CADM), and CADM augmented with structural variables. The study's methodology integrates literature review, analysis of OEFI-funded practices, and statistical modeling to assess persistence levels. Contrary to existing literature, our findings reveal significantly higher levels of persistence than anticipated. Moreover, through model comparison, CADM augmented with political economic variables emerges as the superior model for analyzing and predicting persistence in agricultural practices funded by CDFA OEFI. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of behavioral determinants in sustainable agricultural practices and offer insights into optimizing policy interventions for long-term practice adoption and environmental impact.

Optimization problems lie at the core of improving performance in various tasks, ranging from day-to-day work scheduling to coordinating robots in a warehouse fulfillment center. Distributed swarm systems provide a robust and adaptive solution approach to many optimization problems. Instead of using one really sophisticated agent, multiple smaller less sophisticated agents can provide the flexibility to evaluate more options and still provide a "good" answer. This dissertation uses graphs to model, analyze, and simulate swarm behavior, primarily to predict the time-to-converge (TTC) and success probability. First, we use a bipartite model for the distributed best-of-N problem, and show how the model can be represented as a Discrete Time Markov Chain (DTMC). Second, we analyze useful theoretical properties of DTMCs, and parameters from DTMCs are tuned to mimic behavior in existing agent-based simulations, enabling more precise analysis of these algorithms and verifying the usefulness of the graph-based abstraction. We then use Graph Neural Networks to take these DTMCs as input and learn the structure of the graphs. These structures allow us to see relationships between different states of the swarm, like the success or the failure state. The performance of these graph neural networks is then analyzed for classification tasks, specifically whether the swarm is slow or fast, and how successful the swarm is likely to be. We see that inductive learning on efficiently sampled ABMs can lead to high F1 scores on performance classification.

Nous examinons la possibilité de déployer un service Lower-than-Best-Effort(LBE)sur des liens à long délai tels que des liens satellites. L'objectif estde fournir une deuxième classe de priorité dédiée à un trafic en tâche defond ou un trafic de signalisation. Dans le contexte des liens à long délai, unservice LBE peut aider à optimiser l'utilisation de la capacité du lien. Enoutre, un service de LBE peut permettre un accès à Internet à faible coût oumême gratuit dans les collectivités éloignées via la communication parsatellite. Il existe deux niveaux de déploiement possible d'une approche de LBE: soit àla couche MAC ou soità la couche de transport. Dans cette thèse, nous nousintéressons à une approche de bout-en-bout et donc nous nousconcentrons spécifiquement sur les solutions de la couche transport. Nousproposons tout d'abord d'étudier LEDBAT (Low Extra Delay BackgroundTransport)en raison de son potentiel. En effet, LEDBAT a été normalisé parl'IETF et est largement déployé dans le client BitTorrent officiel.Malheureusement, le réglage des paramètres de LEDBAT dépend fortement desconditions du réseau. Dans le pire des cas, les flux LEDBAT peuvent prendretoute la bande passante d'autre trafic tels que le trafic commercial sur lelien satellite. LEDBAT souffre également d'un problème intra-inéquité, appelélatecomer advantage. Toutes ces raisons empêchent souvent les opérateursde permettre l'utilisation de ce protocole sur le lien sans fil et à longdélai puisqu'une mauvaise configuration peut surcharger la capacité du lien.Pour répondre à l'ensemble de ces problèmes, nous proposons FLOWER, un nouveauprotocole de transport, qui se positionne comme alternative à LEDBAT. Enutilisant un contrôleur de logique floue pour réguler le débit des données,FLOWER vise à résoudre les problèmes de LEDBAT tout en remplissant le rôle d'unprotocole de LBE. Dans cette thèse, nous montrons que FLOWER peut transporter letrafic deLBE non seulement dans le contexte à long délai, mais dansplusieurs conditions du réseau où LEDBAT se trouve en échec. / In this thesis, we look at the possibility to deploy a Lower-than-Best-Effort(LBE) service over long delay links such as satellite links. The objective isto provide a second priority class dedicated to background or signalingtraffic. In the context of long delay links, an LBE service might also help tooptimize the use of the link capacity. In addition, an LBE service can enablea low-cost or even free Internet access in remote communities via satellitecommunication. There exists two possible deployment level of an LBE approach: either at MAClayer or at transport layer. In this thesis, we are interested in anend-to-end approach and thusspecifically focus on the transport layersolutions. We first propose to study LEDBAT (Low Extra Delay BackgroundTransport) because of its potential. Indeed, LEDBAT has been standardized byIETF and is widely deployed within the official BitTorrent client.Unfortunately, the tuning of LEDBAT parameters is revealed to highly depend onthe network conditions. In the worst case scenario, LEDBAT flows can starveother traffic such as commercial traffic performing over a satellite link.LEDBAT also suffers from an intra-unfairness issue, called the latecomeradvantage. All these reasons often prevent operators to allow the use of suchprotocol over wireless and long-delay link as a misconfiguration can overloadthe link capacity. Therefore, we design FLOWER, a new delay-based transportprotocol, as an alternative to LEDBAT. By using a fuzzy controller to modulatethe sending rate, FLOWER aims to solve LEDBAT issues while fulfilling the roleof an LBE protocol. Our simulation results show that FLOWER can carry LBEtraffic not only in the long delay context, but in a wide range of networkconditions where LEDBAT usually fails.

Productivity and efficiency are the tools used in managing performance. This study researches and implements best practices that lead to best performance. A customer quality defined standard has to be created by benchmarking the Information Technology Service Regions which may be used to help decision-makers or management make informed decisions about (1) the effectiveness of service systems, (2) managing the performance of Information Technology Service Regions. Waiting lines or queues are an everyday occurrence and may take the form of customers waiting in a restaurant to be serviced or telephone calls waiting to be answered. The model of waiting lines is used to help managers evaluate the effectiveness of service systems. It determines precisely the optimal number of employees that must work at the centralised service desk. A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology is used as a benchmarking tool to locate a frontier which is then used to evaluate the efficiency of each of the organizational units responsible for observed output and input quantities. The inefficient units can learn from the best practice frontier situated along the frontier line. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

I denna uppsats undersöks begreppet ”barnets bästa” med utgångspunkten att granska vilka olika föreställningar som finns och har funnits kring vad detta innebär. Detta begrepp är inte nytt för vår tid, men det har debatterats mer efter tillkomsten av Förenta Nationernas konvention om barnets rättigheter som antogs 1989. Barnets bästa är dock en social konstruktion och innebörden av begreppet förändras därför ständigt. Metoden som ligger till grund för denna uppsats är dels en genomgång av litteratur och dels en textanalys av två historiska källmaterial bestående av en proposition från 1924, prop. 1924:150, och en av statens offentliga utredningar från 1997, SOU 1997:116. Genom denna textanalys framkommer både likheter och skillnader mellan samhällets syn på barnets bästa. Det kan konstateras att föreställningarna kring vad barnets bästa innebär har förändrats sedan början av 1900-talet. Utvecklingen av barnets bästa hänger samman med en mängd faktorer såsom synen på barn, rådande kultur, normer, värderingar, kunskap, ekonomi, politiska idéer, reformer och genusföreställningar. Slutsatsen är att vuxna såg till barnets bästa även i början av 1900-talet, men att begreppet då hade en annan innebörd. Därmed kan det konstateras att barnets bästa har varit, är och förblir ett begrepp i förändring. / In this paper the conception “the best interest of the child” examines with the starting-point to study which different ideas that exists and have existed about what this means. This conception is not new for today, but it has been debated more frequently after the creation of the United Nations Children’s Convention which was accepted in 1989. However, the best interest of the child is a social construction and therefore the meaning of the conception changes constantly. The method that lays the foundation of this paper is partly an exposition of literature and also a text analysis of two historical sources consisting of a government bill from 1924, prop. 1924:150, and one of the States official reports from 1997, SOU 1997:116. Through this text analysis emerges both similarities and differences between the society’s views on the best interest of the child. The statement is that the conceptions of what the best interest of the child mean have changed since the beginning of the twentieth century. The development of the best interest of the child is connected to many factors such as the view of the child, existing culture, norms, values, knowledge, economy, political ideas, reforms and gender conceptions. The conclusion is that grown-ups tried to fulfil what was best for the children even in the beginning of the twentieth century, but the conception had a different meaning at the time. Therefore the conclusion is that the best interest of the child has been, is and will be a conception in change.

<p>I denna uppsats undersöks begreppet ”barnets bästa” med utgångspunkten att granska vilka olika föreställningar som finns och har funnits kring vad detta innebär. Detta begrepp är inte nytt för vår tid, men det har debatterats mer efter tillkomsten av Förenta Nationernas konvention om barnets rättigheter som antogs 1989. Barnets bästa är dock en social konstruktion och innebörden av begreppet förändras därför ständigt.</p><p>Metoden som ligger till grund för denna uppsats är dels en genomgång av litteratur och dels en textanalys av två historiska källmaterial bestående av en proposition från 1924, prop. 1924:150, och en av statens offentliga utredningar från 1997, SOU 1997:116. Genom denna textanalys framkommer både likheter och skillnader mellan samhällets syn på barnets bästa.</p><p>Det kan konstateras att föreställningarna kring vad barnets bästa innebär har förändrats sedan början av 1900-talet. Utvecklingen av barnets bästa hänger samman med en mängd faktorer såsom synen på barn, rådande kultur, normer, värderingar, kunskap, ekonomi, politiska idéer, reformer och genusföreställningar. Slutsatsen är att vuxna såg till barnets bästa även i början av 1900-talet, men att begreppet då hade en annan innebörd. Därmed kan det konstateras att barnets bästa har varit, är och förblir ett begrepp i förändring.</p> / <p>In this paper the conception “the best interest of the child” examines with the starting-point to study which different ideas that exists and have existed about what this means. This conception is not new for today, but it has been debated more frequently after the creation of the United Nations Children’s Convention which was accepted in 1989. However, the best interest of the child is a social construction and therefore the meaning of the conception changes constantly.</p><p>The method that lays the foundation of this paper is partly an exposition of literature and also a text analysis of two historical sources consisting of a government bill from 1924, prop. 1924:150, and one of the States official reports from 1997, SOU 1997:116. Through this text analysis emerges both similarities and differences between the society’s views on the best interest of the child.</p><p>The statement is that the conceptions of what the best interest of the child mean have changed since the beginning of the twentieth century. The development of the best interest of the child is connected to many factors such as the view of the child, existing culture, norms, values, knowledge, economy, political ideas, reforms and gender conceptions. The conclusion is that grown-ups tried to fulfil what was best for the children even in the beginning of the twentieth century, but the conception had a different meaning at the time. Therefore the conclusion is that the best interest of the child has been, is and will be a conception in change.</p>

No description available.

Productivity and efficiency are the tools used in managing performance. This study researches and implements best practices that lead to best performance. A customer quality defined standard has to be created by benchmarking the Information Technology Service Regions which may be used to help decision-makers or management make informed decisions about (1) the effectiveness of service systems, (2) managing the performance of Information Technology Service Regions. Waiting lines or queues are an everyday occurrence and may take the form of customers waiting in a restaurant to be serviced or telephone calls waiting to be answered. The model of waiting lines is used to help managers evaluate the effectiveness of service systems. It determines precisely the optimal number of employees that must work at the centralised service desk. A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology is used as a benchmarking tool to locate a frontier which is then used to evaluate the efficiency of each of the organizational units responsible for observed output and input quantities. The inefficient units can learn from the best practice frontier situated along the frontier line. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.