The increase in certified sickness absence recorded in most European countries during the last decade is of increasing concern to public health agencies. While sickness absence can promote rest and recovery from illness, it may also have negative consequences, including increased risks of inactivity and isolation, poorer quality of life and increased uptake of health services. In the Republic of Ireland (ROI) sickness certification is part of General Practitioners’ (GPs’) contractual service to the Department of Social Protection (DSP). Sickness certificates are also issued to patients as evidence of illness for employment purposes. There is limited research exploring GPs certifying practices in the Republic of Ireland. The aim of the thesis was to explore perspectives on sickness certification in general practice in Ireland. The data collection consisted of three stages. Study 1 consisted of in depth individual interviews with 14 GPs across 11 primary care practices in Ireland. Study 2 was based on an on-line questionnaire survey using a number of vignettes with 62 GPs working in primary healthcare. Finally, study 3 consisted of a focus group conducted with eight GPs in a large urban practice in Ireland. Qualitative analysis was conducted in vivo using content and simple thematic analysis techniques. Quantitative data was analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics using PASW version 18 statistical software. Combined results indicate that GPs can find their role as certifiers’ problematic and a source of conflict during the consultation process with patients. GPs concerns are with breaching patient confidentiality and in particular disclosing illness to employers. They reported feeling inadequate in dealing with some cases requesting sickness leave, including certification for adverse social circumstances and they felt a need for better communication between themselves, employers and relevant government departments. Willingness to issue a sickness cert may be influenced by the nature of the patient’s presenting problem. A psychological problem generated greater belief that patients were unfit for work, and GPs were more sympathetic and showed greater satisfaction with the decision they had made to certify these patient in comparison to patients with a physical problem. Average sickness certification periods were longer in cases of psychological nature (1-2 weeks) in comparison to the physical complaint (4-7days). Overall GPs displayed a negative feeling towards prescribing sickness leave and there was a perception that sickness certificates were being used by employers as a management tool in controlling absenteeism. GPs also mentioned cultural factors in work place absenteeism and lack of rehabilitative pathway as impacting on sickness certification practices in Ireland. Issuing a sickness certificate appears influenced by medical and non-medical factors. Potential exists for improving the system, but requires significant engagement with other stakeholders such as employers and social benefit agencies. Focus should be placed on referral and rehabilitative pathways for patients to ensure appropriate certification and early return to work.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyse the employers legal right to demand a medical certificate from an employee from the very first day in a leave of absence due to illness. Further the paper will investigate the possible consequences and repercussions that an employee faces if he or she is not willing or able to procure a medical certificate by the demand of an employer. A minor comparative study about work security during illness and sick leave in Sweden and Denmark will be carried out and analysed. To gain a broader perspective on sick leave a gender perspective will be analysed as well. The paper is largely based on a doctrinal method of traditional legal analysis. Due to the change in legislation regarding sick pay paid by employer in 2008 all employers without collective agreements gained the right to demand a medical certificate from an employee. Reasons behind the requests can vary from an early start in rehabilitation to the suspicion of unrightfully use of sick pay. The general rule in Sweden unlike Denmark is that you cannot be dismissed due to illness, and there are comprehensive obligations for an employer to partake in the rehabilitation and return to work for an employee. Permanent reduced capacity for work or lack of cooperation in the rehabilitation process by the employee stipulates exceptions for dismissal due to illness. By not procuring a medical certificate an employee could consequently face dismissal.

Les statistiques de mortalité permettent à l'OMS de mesurer l'ampleur des problèmes de santé dans les pays. Leur fiabilité est fonction de la qualité du certificat de décès. Il ressort que plus de 25% des données des pays Africains ne sont pas utilisables. La principale raison de ce déficit d'information serait la non-performance des systèmes et outils d'enregistrement des données. Notre travail avait pour objectif d'étudier un modèle d'enregistrement des décès qui tienne compte à la fois des normes de l'OMS et des réalités de l'Afrique. Nous avons cherché à savoir comment la certification des causes de décès pouvait améliorer la production des statistiques de mortalité en Afrique. Comme méthodologie, nous avons utilisé une recherche interventionnelle combinée à une démarche projet et à une approche épidémiologique. L'étude a eu comme résultat la conception et l'implémentation d'un modèle à trois scénarii de déploiement en fonction du niveau d'équipement des établissements de soins en TIC et en personnel qualifié. Le système a été validé et implémenté au CHU de Bobo Dioulasso. Les acteurs ont été formés et le dispositif fonctionne depuis le 1er janvier 2014. Une première évaluation du modèle a été réalisée après trois mois de fonctionnement. La mise en place d'un comité de suivi et d'un plan annuel de formation, l'implication du Ministère de la santé et de l'Organisation Ouest Africaine de la Santé, l'assistance technique de la Direction Générale de la Modernisation de l'Etat Civil et du CepiDc (France) sont des éléments d'appropriation, de pérennisation et d'espoir. Cependant, l'enregistrement des décès survenus hors des hôpitaux reste un autre défi à relever. / Mortality statistics are basic data the WHO employs to measure health problems in different countries. However, their reliability depends on the quality of death data collected by different doctors. It appears, however, that over 25% African data are of no use because they are not available on time or lack quality. The main reason for this lack of information could be the nonperformance of data logging systems and tools. Our work aimed at investigating a death registration model taking into account both WHO's standards and the realities of Africa. We tried to understand if certification of death causes could improve mortality statistics production in Africa. Our methodology was based on a combination of interventional research, project process, and an epidemiological approach. The study resulted in the design and implementation of a three scenarios model, depending on ICT equipment and qualified staff level of health care facilities. The system has been validated and implemented in the University Hospital of Bobo Dioulasso. All the actors were trained and the device operates since January 1st, 2014, after the training of the actors. A first evaluation of the model was performed after three months of operation. The establishment of a monitoring committee and of an annual training plan, the involvement of the Ministry of Health and of the West African Health Organization, the technical assistance of CepiDc (France) and of the General Directorate for Modernization of Civil Status, are elements of appropriation, sustainability and hope. However, deaths registration outside hospitals remains an active challenge.

M.Ed. / This research project forms part of a group project that involves three factors of effective management: • normative management; • open democratic management; and • accountable co-operative management. This mini-dissertation deals with normative management as a factor of effective school management. Chapter one explains the aims and objective of the research. The main objective is to determine the role normative management plays in the effective management of schools with diverse academic results in the 1999 senior certificate exam. This chapter further explains the research method, quantitative research, used for this research. Finally the researcher makes important assumptions in this chapter that should be taken into consideration for the mini- dissertation. Chapter two is in the form of a detailed literature study of the topic. The concepts, effective management and normative management as a factor of effective management, are explained in full. This chapter also deals with concepts from the questionnaire. Chapter three discusses the research instrument, the questionnaire. This chapter also explains the items of the questionnaire that forms part of normative management and the research group. Chapter four deals with the empirical study of the data from the questionnaires. In chapter five the researcher comes to certain conclusions from the study. Firstly the moral of educators influences school effectiveness. Secondly a common vision and mission will improve school effectiveness. The importance of the role of the principal is thirdly explained. Fourthly it is stated that parents should be involve to improve school effectiveness. Fifthly the curriculum in schools is dealt with. Curriculum 2005 is also discussed. Finally the importance of providing in the basic needs of children to improve school effectiveness is explained. In conclusion the researcher states that the educator should ask him/herself the following question when doing or saying something involving the learners: "Will this benefit the learner?" If the answer to this question is 'yes', the action will improve school effectiveness.

O surgimento e a popularização de arquiteturas de software que fornecem suporte à programação distribuída orientada a objetos, como CORBA, .NET e Java EE, gerou uma demanda por infra-estruturas de segurança eficientes, capazes de proteger os recursos dos sistemas de ataques maliciosos. Essa proteção começa pela identificação dos usuários que interagem com os sistemas, processo conhecido como autenticação. Entretanto, a autenticação por si só não é suficiente para garantir a segurança dos recursos, uma vez que a autenticação não determina quais ações os usuários estão autorizados a executar depois de autenticados. Em outras palavras, um mecanismo de autorização, que faz valer as políticas de controle de acesso aos recursos definidas pelos administradores de sistemas, se faz necessário. Neste trabalho estudamos mecanismos de controle de acesso baseado em papéis e a aplicabilidade dos certificados de atributos X.509 como estrutura de armazenamento desses papéis em um ambiente Java EE. Em particular, estendemos a infra-estrutura de segurança do servidor de aplicações JBoss, de modo que ela passasse a comportar os certificados de atributos X.509. Além disso, analisamos as vantagens e desvantagens do uso de tais certificados e avaliamos o desempenho da extensão desenvolvida em relação a outras alternativas que são oferecidas pelo JBoss para o armazenamento de papéis dos usuários. / The popularization of software architectures that provide support for distributed object-oriented programming, like CORBA, .NET, and Java EE, revealed the need for efficient security infrastructures to protect the resources of enterprise systems from malicious attacks. This protection usually begins with the identification of the users that interact with the systems, a process known as authentication. However, authentication alone is not enough to guarantee the protection of the resources, as it cannot determine what actions a particular user is allowed to execute on a given resource. In other words, an authorization mechanism is needed in order to enforce the access control policies as defined by the system administrators. In this dissertation we studied role-based access control mechanisms and the use of X.509 attribute certificates as data structures that store the users roles in a Java EE environment. Particularly, we added X.509 attribute certificates support to the existing JBoss application server security infrastructure. Furthermore, we evaluated the pros and cons of using these certificates, and compared the performance of the developed extension to the performance of the existing solutions provided by JBoss to store the users roles.

This study was conducted at the TVET College X in Gauteng province. The main aim of the study was to establish the way in which national certificate vocational learners are prepared by work integrated learning for industry. Twenty participants were sampled qualitatively from Campus X. The unemployment and poverty rates are high in South Africa and are accompanied by income inequalities, hence the implementation of further education and training policies in an effort to reduce these high rates. Researchers concur that South Africa needs to invest in education and training in order to bring the country’s human capital to a level that is consistent with sustainable economic development. The establishment of a dual education system which integrates theory and practice is possible through the effective implementation of a curriculum that embraces work integrated learning. A high percentage of the learners at college X are exiting the national certificate vocational programme without either practical experience or exposure in industry. The study was based on the following research question, namely, How are national certificate vocational learners prepared by work integrated learning for industry? The study findings, which emerged from the structured interviews which were conducted, revealed that lecturers are informed about what WIL is but not on how it should be implemented and, thus, they are generally not very enthusiastic about it. It would appear that they tend to see WIL as the obligation of the college management and WIL facilitators and, thus, are prepared to convey only what is in the curriculum. However, the curriculum does not include a variety of obligatory WIL exercises. While learners understand what WIL entails, they are concerned that the workplace placement component of their learning is not prioritised as this may later place them at a disadvantage when applying for attractive jobs in the labour market. Existing literature highlights the difficulties experienced in WIL implementation and the lack of implementation models, with this possibly being the reason why learners are not being viably prepared by WIL. A work integrated model for national certificate vocational institutions to better prepare learners for industry was developed based on the findings of the study. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to describe how real estate agents take into account invested energy improvement measures in their valuation of single-family homes. A qualitative research method has been used to achieve the purpose of the study. The data collection was performed through semi-structured interviews with real estate agents in Sweden. In order to be able to structure and analyze the collected material, an analysis method has been used according to Gioia. What we found in the study is that energy-saving investments affect value to varying degrees. Single measures have an insignificant value impact, while several investments have a greater effect on the value of the property. Investment in a new heating system is one such measure that we have found leads to an increased value. We have also found that there is a lack of market information for real estate agents when valuing single-family house units regarding to the energy performance of the comparison object.

The thesis will deal with constructing a business plan and subsequently the establishment of small business. The paper will contain theoretical information, then the situation will be analyzed and selected the most suitable procedure for establishing a business and build a business plan for its proper operation and finding the space on the market.

Reducing global energy consumption is a common challenge faced by the human race due to the energy shortage and growing energy demands. The building sector bears a large responsibility for the total energy consumption throughout the world. In particular, it was concluded that existing buildings, which are usually old and energy-inefficient, are the main reason for the high energy consumption of the building sector, in view of the low replacement rate (about 1%-3% per year) of existing buildings by new energy-efficient buildings. Therefore, improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings is a feasible and effective way to reduce energy consumption and mitigate the environmental impact of the building sector. The high energy intensity and requirements of a green building policy are the main motivation of this study, which focuses on finding cost-effective solutions to green building retrofit and maintenance planning to reduce energy consumption and ensure policy compliance. As about 50% of the total energy usage of a general building is caused by its envelope system, this study first proposes a multi-objective optimization approach for building envelope retrofit planning in Chapter 2. The purpose is to maximize the energy savings and economic benefits of an investment by improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings with the optimal retrofit plans obtained from the proposed approach. In the model formulation, important indicators for decision makers to evaluate an investment, including energy savings, net present value and the payback period, are taken into consideration. In addition, a photovoltaic (PV) power supply system is considered to reduce the energy demand of buildings because of the adequate solar resource in South Africa. The performance degradation of the PV system and corresponding maintenance cost are built into the optimization process for an accurate estimation of the energy savings and payback period of the investment so that decision makers are able to make informed decisions. The proposed model also gives decision makers a convenient way to interact with the optimization process to obtain a desired optimal retrofit plan according to their preferences over different objectives. In addition to the envelope system, the indoor systems of a general building also account for a large proportion of the total energy demand of a building. In the literature, research related to building retrofit planning methods aiming at saving energy examines either the indoor appliances or the envelope components. No study on systematic retrofit plan for the whole building, including both the envelope system and the indoor systems, has been reported so far. In addition, a systematic whole-building retrofit plan taking into account the green building policy, which in South Africa is the energy performance certificate (EPC) rating system, is urgently needed to help decision makers to ensure that the retrofit is financially beneficial and the resulting building complies with the green building policy requirements. This has not been investigated in the literature. Therefore, Chapter 4 of this thesis fills the above-mentioned gaps and presents a model that can determine an optimal retrofit plan for the whole building, considering both the envelope system and indoor systems, aiming at maximizing energy savings in the most cost-effective way and achieving a good rating from the EPC rating system to comply with the green building policy in South Africa. As reaching the best energy level from the EPC rating system for a building usually requires a high amount of investment, resulting in a long payback period, which is not attractive for decision makers in view of the vulnerable economic situation of South Africa, the proposed model treats the retrofit plan as a multi-year project, improving efficiency targets in consecutive years. That is to say, the model breaks down the once-off long-term project into smaller projects over multiple financial years with shorter payback periods. In that way, the financial concerns of the investors are alleviated. In addition, a tax incentive program to encourage energy saving investments in South Africa is considered in the optimization problem to explore the economic benefits of the retrofit projects fully. Considering both the envelope system and indoor systems, many systems and items that can be retrofitted and massive retrofit options available for them result in a large number of discrete decision variables for the optimization problem. The inherent non-linearity and multi-objective nature of the optimization problem and other factors such as the requirements of the EPC system make it difficult to solve the building retrofit problem. The complexity of the problem is further increased when the target buildings have many floors. In addition, there is a large number of parameters that need to be obtained in the building retrofit optimization problem. This requires a detailed energy audit of the buildings to be retrofitted, which is an expensive bottom-up modeling exercise. To address these challenges, two simplified methods to reduce the complexity of finding the optimal whole-building retrofit plans are proposed in Chapter 4. Lastly, an optimal maintenance planning strategy is presented in Chapter 5 to ensure the sustainability of the retrofit. It is natural that the performance of all the retrofitted items will degrade over time and consequently the energy savings achieved by the retrofit will diminish. The maintenance plan is therefore studied to restore the energy performance of the buildings after retrofit in a cost-effective way. Maintenance planning for the indoor systems is not considered in this study because it has been thoroughly investigated in the literature. In addition, a maintenance plan for the PV system involved in the retrofit of this study is investigated in Chapter 2. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / PhD / Unrestricted

Title: Security and usability of standard hash functions, in particular MD-5, SHA-1 and SHA-2 Author: Galaczová Barbora Department: Department of Algebra Supervisor: Doc. RNDr. Tůma Jiří, DrSc., Department of Algebra Consultant: Ing. Budiš Petr, Ph.D. Abstract: In the present work we try to digestedly describe standard hash functions, in particular MD-5, SHA-1 and SHA-2. We describe resume of existing attacks on these hash functions. We closely focused on MD-5 collision attacks, because the other hash function collision attacks result from these. Next we describe posibilities of practical usage of hash function collisions, in particular into the qualified certificates area and possible threats. At the end to the present work we describe new hash functions, which could replace current hash functions. This work also contains software to calculate MD-5 hash and search it`s collisions. The software is based on method invented by Czech cryptoanalytist Vlastimil Klíma. Keywords: hash function, collision, qualified certificate, security.