<div>In recent decades women have continued to move towards, and even reach, equality with men in terms of educational and professional representation and success in numerous fields. Yet women consistently are underrepresented in the field of engineering in both settings. The present study sought to develop and test interventions in both academic and employment settings aimed at promoting women’s behavioral intentions to pursue and remain within engineering. Grounded in Social Role Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior, I proposed that an intervention involving a shift of emphasis in the perceptions of engineering toward the communal and people-oriented aspects of engineering roles – increasing engineering’s alignment to women’s gender identity.</div><div>To empirically test the effectiveness of the intervention, I conducted two studies using two populations of women. The first study involved women who had not yet declared a major and the second study involved women who were presently working as an engineer. The aim was to examine the effectiveness of the intervention to increase women’s intention to pursue an engineering major and women’s intention to remain versus leave an engineering career, in Study One and Study Two, respectively. I predicted that women in the condition emphasizing the communal and people-oriented aspects of engineering would experience more positive outcomes as compared to women in the condition emphasizing the agentic and thing-oriented aspects of engineering.</div><div>Collectively, the results were mixed in terms of supporting the effectiveness of the intervention on the outcomes of interest for the study populations. For Study One, there was substantial support for the intervention’s positive impact on women’s attitudes and behavioral intentions, particularly for women who had not previously considered engineering. However, for Study Two, there was no support for the intervention’s effectiveness. While helping to improve women’s intention to pursue engineering is important, future work must continue to seek theoretically and empirically founded ways to improve women’s state in engineering across all stages of the academic and employment cycle.</div>

This essay examines whether an investment in tertiary education in mid-age increase the probability to remain in the labor market after age 65 in Sweden. In addition, we analyze whether there is any difference in the probability to continue work after 65 if individuals choose to invest in tertiary education in mid-age or in any other age. This study utilizes already existing data that is a combination of a questionnaire survey and Swedish register data. In the sample there are 5235 individuals who are retired and 881 who are still in the labor market, born between 1938 and 1949. The implemented method is a linear probability model to obtain mean marginal effect. The results indicate that individuals who invested in tertiary education in mid-age have a higher probability to remain in the labor market after 65 than individuals with no tertiary education. There is, however, no statistically significant difference in probability depending on when they decide to invest in tertiary education.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Medicine in Bioethics and Health Law Johannesburg, December 2016 / Due to the inherent sensitive character of human genetic material, when employing DNA-based methodology in identification of human remains, clear ethical guidelines and well implemented law are necessary. With this in focus, the study determines and validates a set of morally justifiable ethical standards drawn from universal principles and human rights which rest on the value of respect of human dignity. In South Africa, The Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Act was commenced in 2015. While the terms of the Act mainly deal with the establishment and functioning of the National Forensic DNA Database of South Africa for the purposes of criminal justice, it also provides for the identification of missing persons and unidentified human remains. To be fully compliant with ethical standards and human rights, few areas of the Act needing attention and improvement during a further implementation process are highlighted. This study concludes with several recommendations to promote meeting the recognised ethical standards by the local DNA-based programme of identification of human remains. / MT2017

Mummified human remains are in effect cultural and biological museums, recording a wealth of information on the life and death of the individual as well as the sociocultural beliefs of those involved in the collection and curation of the specimen. During the 1930’s, the mummified remains of a single individual (TM PAL 92-136) and associated artefacts were donated to the Transvaal Museum. Detailed provenance data were not recorded. A multi-disciplinary approach is followed to restore context and identity to the remains. TM PAL 92-136 was an adult female in her early to middle twenties who stood at 1.58 m when she died. The extraction and amplification of aDNA from a rib showed her ancestry to be Khoe-San, yet she lived at a time of contact between Iron Age pastoralists and traditional hunter-gatherers ~AD 1160. The extent to which she was immersed in either way of life cannot be gleaned from the data apart from to say that she was most probably associated with a semi-sedentary agricultural lifestyle. She appears to have died of natural causes as no pathologies are evident on the body. Perhaps frailty or malnutrition made her susceptible to illness although the absence of enamel hypoplasia suggests that she was exposed to little dietary stress during her life. Perhaps the cause of death was one that does not leave visible traces on skeletal remains. The body became covered in iron-oxide rich sediment from the Waterberg Group shortly after death resulting in natural mummification of the remains. Outer extremities became exposed some time later and were broken. The extremities are no longer mummified, have stepped fractures and were exposed to fire. In the 1930’s the remains were discovered, possibly by people carrying candles in a dark environment environment 4 such as a cave or mineshaft, who spilled wax on the cranium. Dr Frederik Ludorf – a man in his thirties of German and missionary descent – donated the remains to the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria. Human skeletal remains were highly sought after at the time as specimens in the study physical anthropology and presumably for display. Robert Broom accepted the remains applying a designation of ‘Koranna’ to it – despite later admitting that he’d ‘made up’ the classification. In order to fit into the display cabinet, the remains were deliberately broken and folded over at the knees. Following public disapproval about the display of human remains, the remains are now stored in the basement of the NCHM. ‘Museum beetles’ (Dermestidae sp.) have caused slight damage to the remains. The remains have been returned to the museum along with the results from this project.

In view of the rapid decrease in the number of students opting to train as teachers and the increasing numbers of teachers leaving the profession; the teaching profession in South Africa is indeed what Duke (1984) termed “imperilled”. While quantitative research identifies remuneration to be the foremost factor attributed to the dissatisfaction of teachers in South Africa as elsewhere; the main purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of remuneration. Nine qualified women teachers aged between 25 and 35 years of age, who had been teaching for at least two years and less than ten, volunteered to take part in this study. The sample was drawn from government schools in a suburban part of Johannesburg. This research was based on the information gathered from a short biographical questionnaire followed by in-depth, semi-structured interviews. A process of language sensitive thematic content analysis was employed in order to analyse the data from the interviews. The research indicates that in the decision to enter the teaching profession, notions of the perception that teaching is a vocation predominate. An emphasis on the related intrinsic rewards to be gained from teaching was found to receive greater focus than monetary concerns on entering the profession. The participants expressed that women are more likely to enter the teaching profession while even though men may share the passion to teach, they are seriously deterred by the poor levels of remuneration. The participants explained that as the contexts of their lives changed, so too did their perceptions of remuneration, often resulting in an increasing emphasis on the importance of better remuneration to meet their and their families’ financial needs. Related to this, it was found that as South African teachers were exposed to an almost overwhelming number of challenges, the participants began to experience fewer intrinsic rewards which seemed to impact negatively on their perceptions of remuneration. Thus of the nine participants, only two indicated their long-term commitment to the teaching profession whereas the remaining seven all had plans to leave the profession in search of better remuneration.

Excavations conducted in June of 2004 at 71 Park Place, then a vacant residential lot located in downtown St. Augustine, yielded a significant artifact and faunal assemblage. Historic maps and documents indicate that this property was once part of a 10¼ acre orange grove and cornfield that existed from approximately 1790 until the late 1880s. Historic maps show that three structures once stood on this property, which is corroborated by the archaeological findings at 71 Park Place of post-holes that outline a two-room structure. As the majority of the artifacts and faunal remains recovered from the site were found around this possible structure, it is likely that these remains were left behind by the former occupants of this structure. Historic deeds indicate that the antebellum owners of the property were wealthy individuals and slaveholders, which raises the possibility that the former occupants of the structure identified on the property were slaves and that the artifacts and faunal remains recovered from 71 Park Place are representative of the material culture of urban slaves. This thesis examines this possibility by looking for previously determined ethnic markers of slavery within the assemblage, as well as by comparing the artifact and faunal remains to three plantation slave and three middle-to-upper class St. Augustine assemblages. Results indicate that although an urban salve occupation cannot be shown archaeologically, the possibility still remains, and further archaeological research in the thus far little studied field of urban slavery would be greatly beneficial to this study. / Thesis / Master

Thesis advisor: Andrew Hargreaves / Music teachers occupy a conflicted and contested position in many secondary schools, and music teacher education programs have been given the task of preparing students to enter this challenging environment. This qualitative dissertation study examined the explicit, implicit, and null curricula of music teacher preparation programs in Massachusetts, the processes involved in determining those curricula and the consequences of selecting certain music education content over others. Degree requirements and course descriptions were analyzed across all undergraduate music teacher preparation programs. In addition, a survey was administered to music and education faculty in all programs and members of five institutions participated in interviews. The explicit curriculum in most music teacher preparation programs emphasized the knowledge and skills of performance, specifically the performance of Western art music, as well as the isolation of music content knowledge from pedagogical knowledge. The implicit message delivered by the explicit curriculum was that advanced musical study was intended for the few, and that popular music, world music, and other genres that deviated from the western art music tradition (i.e. - the null curriculum) were of less value. Using Bernstein's and Young's theories from the sociology of knowledge, Goodson's theory of the status and evolution of school subjects, and Siskin's and Ball and Lacey's work in the culture of secondary school subjects as the theoretical framework, the position of music education was explained as a conflicted content area that demonstrated traits of both high- and low-status subjects. Music education's geographic isolation from general education faculty was magnified by the conflicting views that music educators held when compared with their music performance counterparts. The knowledge boundaries of music content had been defended for centuries, and music education's attempt to redefine what counts as valid music and music education knowledge was met with resistance from those who benefited from the familiarity offered by the conservatory-style model of postsecondary musical study. One outlier was identified, a program whose performance emphasis was not based on western art music. Tradition and reform proved to be challenging dual goals for music educators. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Durch die Zunahme der Biogasproduktion in den letzten Jahren hat sich auch die Menge von Gärprodukten, die verbleibenden Rückstände, entsprechend erhöht. In Deutschland fallen jährlich mehr als 50 Millionen Tonnen Gärprodukte an, die als Dünger verwendet werden. Damit werden Nährstoffe in den Kreislauf landwirtschaftlicher Ökosysteme zurück-geführt. Allerdings sind die agroökologischen Wirkungen noch nicht hinreichend erforscht. Aus diesem Grund wurden die folgenden Parameter untersucht: Einfluss von trockenen und flüssigen Gärprodukten auf dem Ertrag von drei ausgewählten Fruchtarten im Vergleich zu oder in Kombination mit Mineraldünger in On-Farm Versuchen; Wachstum, Entwicklung und Ertrag von zwei ausgewählten Fruchtarten im Vergleich zu Mineraldünger, Gülle und Stallmist in einer vollständig randomisierten Blockanlage; Einfluss auf ausgewählte Bodenlebewesen im Vergleich zu Mineraldünger, Gülle und Stallmist in einer vollständig randomisierten Blockanlage. Zusätzlich wurde die Mineralisierung von flüssigen und festen Gärprodukten im Vergleich zu Gülle und Stallmist untersucht, um Effekte der verschiedenen Düngestoffe auf die Humusbildung unter kontrollierten Bedingungen zu bestimmen. / With the increase of biogas production in recent years, the amount of digestates or the remaining residues increased accordingly. Every year in Germany more than 50 million tons of digestates are produced, which are used as fertilizer. Thus nutrients return into the circulation of agricultural ecosystems. However, the agro-ecological effects have not been deeply researched until now. For this reason, the following parameters were quantified: the influence of dry and liquid fermentation products on the yield of three selected crops in comparison to or in combination with mineral-N-fertilizers in on-farm experiments; the growth, development and yield of two selected crops in comparison to mineral-N-fertilizer, liquid manure and farmyard manure in a randomized complete block design; selected soil organisms as compared to mineral-N-fertilizer, liquid manure and farmyard manure in a randomized complete block design. In addition, the mineralization of dry and wet digestates in comparison with liquid manure and farmyard manure was investigated in order to evaluate the effects of different fertilizers on the humus formation under controlled conditions.

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The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine whether administrative support, classroom management, and parental involvement factors are significantly related to novice teacher’s retention. A quantitative survey and qualitative focus group measured the correlation between administrative support, classroom management, and parental involvement on novice teachers’ intent to remain in the classroom. The findings of this study will prepare educational leaders, human resource departments, and school board members with strategies to effectively reduce teacher attrition and improve student achievement in school systems. Both qualitative and quantitative data were compiled and synthesized while considering descriptive and inferential statistics to recognize emergent themes for implications of novice teacher retention. The findings of the study concluded that there was a significant correlation between administrative support and classroom management on novice teachers’ intent to remain.